There is a website that lets you see the United States debt rise while you watch. It goes up hundreds of thousands of dollars in seconds.
The site also shows numbers as they change for U.S. Total Debt, Consumer Debt, Credit Card Debt and also shows numbers changing as money is added into Federal Tax, State Tax, State Tax and Payroll Tax.
It also breaks down the debt to each citizen and family. It is overwhelming to watch so many numbers changing at the same time.
Martina McBride singing In My Daughter’s Eyes.
Five of Martina McBride’s singles have reached No. 1 on the country charts. Seven of her nine studio albums have gone gold or platinum with 16 million in sales during her career.
Her website has several of her videos to watch:
http://www.martinamcbride.com/media/videos/397/823
Howdy Doody was shown in the afternoon on KALB TV in Alexandria, Louisiana in the 50's.
Howdy Doody was one of the early shows seen on KALB TV in Alexandria, Louisiana in the 50′s and the show lives on in my memories of that time. I can remember Howdy and Buffalo Bob Smith, Clarabelle the Clown, Chief Thunderthud, Princess Summerfall Winterspring, Mayor Phineas T. Bluster and Dilly Dally and Flub A Dub the puppet which consisted of parts of eight animals.
I can recall Buffalo Bob asking the kids in the peanut gallery “What time is it” and they say “It’s Howdy Doody time”.
Clarabell the Clown was played by Bob Keeshan who later would become Captain Kangaroo on the CBS network.
The show was taken off the air in 1960 and this is the very end of the last show:
This clip from a Pinky Lee Show reminds me when KALB TV in Alexandria, Louisiana didn’t come on the air till about 3:30 in the afternoon back in the 1950′s and Howdy Doody and Pinky Lee were the first two shows telecast.
Pinky Lee was a silly show but back in these days when there might only be one television station in most towns it was the only show on the air in many markets.
Col. Harland Sanders appears on I’ve Got a Secret shortly after selling his company Kentucky Fried Chicken in 1964 and the panelists try to guess his secret which has nothing to do with selling the company.
The Hawthorne Caballeros celebrated their 60th anniversary in 2006 and are still active today. They are known for their marching uniforms that are designed with a Spanish motif.
They were formed in Hawthorne, New Jersey in 1946 and are still active 64 years later. They have won the DCA World Championship nine times with the last championship won in 2003.
Their website has an extensive history of the Caballeros with many photos.
Old time radio “died” on September 30, 1962 but it still can be heard 24 hours a day 48 years later at radiooncemore.com.
Since visiting the website this morning I have heard an Amos and Andy show and a Fibber McGee and Molly show two of the best known shows from old time radio days. Have Gun Will Travel is now being broadcast while I write this post.
The website features excellent sound on the old time radio broadcasts.
The broadcast schedule includes a live program hosted by Ken Stockinger and Neal Ellis that is broadcast on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 9:00 PM ET.
Tomorrow (Wednesday) old time radio historian/author Martin Grams Jr. will discuss Alfred Hitchcock who is listed as doing only thirteen old time radio shows at radiogoldindex.com but it still should be an interesting discussion for old time radio fans. 9PM ET Wednesday June 16.
Listeners are encouraged to call (410) 360-6070 during the live show.
New Feature Added at Radiogoldindex.com
Radiogoldindex.com the best source for information about old time radio shows has now added a new feature that lets visitors at the website search by date. For instance all shows in their database that were broadcast on June 6, 1944 can be found when going to that date in the list of dates.
It is especially useful for someone like me that wasn’t born till four months after D-Day since it lists the 132 regular shows and special D-Day broadcasts that were broadcast that day.
Online old time radio dealer otrcat.com sells 106 shows from June 6, 1944 for $4 plus shipping for those who would like to have their own CD of the events on the day that signaled the end of World War II.
Another date to search would be the birthday of a visitor. For instance my birthday is October 14, 1944 and found 11 shows broadcast on that date.
Visitors can also search for shows by program and by artist on the home page. For instance it list 1.128 shows in which Jack Benny appeared. The site lists Jim Jordan with 1,227 shows and his wife Marion Jordan with 1.191 shows including other appearances besides Fibber McGee and Molly.
The lists are not all inclusive but only include shows in the Radio Gold Index database. Amos and Andy is listed with only 314 shows but I have seen as many as 367 shows for sale online.
This company which I have done business with is selling those 367 shows on three MP3 CD’s for $5 total which includes shipping:
Oak Ridge Boys singing their classic hit Elvira.
Alabama singing Old Flame in 1981.
Stonewall Jackson singing one of his early hits Don’t Be Angry.
Some singers have a voice that is instantly recognizable and Stonewall Jackson had that kind of voice. He was named after Confederate General Stonewall Jackson and was born in Tabor City, North Carolina on November 6, 1932 and is now 77 years old.
His recordings of Waterloo and B.J. the DJ were his only recordings to reach No.1 on the country music chart.
The Grand Old Opry decided to drop Jackson from their shows and Jackson retaliated by filing a $10 million lawsuit for $10 million in compensatory damage and another $10 million for punitive damages.
Jackson was reportedly told by general manager Pete Fisher that he was “too old and too country”. He settled out of court and returned to rejoin the Grand Ole Opry.
I thought country singers were supposed to sing country. The country music today for the most part is not the country music I remember from the 50′s and 60′s. Personally the more countrified a song is the more I like it.
These 1940′s grocery prices are from the retrohousewife.com website.
It won’t be easy matching the prices in the above ad. Try finding coffee for 19 cents a pound today or two boxes of Wheaties for the same 19 cents.
A Chicago restaurant featured a deluxe Thanksgiving dinner for a $1.
If you’ve priced Thanksgiving dinners lately you will know the above ad offered a real bargain compared to the prices being charged today for Thanksgiving dinners.
The dinner included roast young Vermont turkey, cranberry sauce and all the trimmings. Try finding this deal at your nearest Holiday Inn restaurant this next Thanksgiving or your nearest Krogers grocery store.
These prices are from a 1930′s grocery ad.
Back in the 1930′s you could purchase ten pounds of sugar for only 47 cents and a quart jar of mustard for 15 cents.
In addition buyers back then had their choice of two pounds of lard or a can of peaches for 15 cents.
Merle Haggard singing Are The Good Times Over For Good in 1983.
Leo Sayer singing When I Need You a 1977 song that reached No.1 on both the U.S. and UK charts.
Leo Sayer is a singer that only had two No. 1 hits in the United States in When I Need You and You Make Me Feel Like Dancing but continued to place songs on the UK charts as recently as 2006.
When I Need You was co-written by Albert Hammond and Carole Bayer Sager
Thirty eight years have passed since Daryl Hall and John Oates recorded their first album in 1972 named Whole Oats. They have been recording as Hall and Oates ever since. Hall is 63 today and looks that old while Oates doesn’t look anywhere close to being his 61 years old.
The following video from American Idol final in May shows them singing You Make My Dreams Come True. Hall is showing his age more than Oates. There are no closeups on Oates but from a distance he looks more than 41 than 61.
Hall and Oates singing You Make My Dreams Come True on the American Idol show.
Hall and Oates singing Private Eyes in their earlier days which has over two million hits on youtube.com.
This video from 1980 shows Hall and Oates singing their classic Your Kiss Is On My List
Halls and Oates are still recording as they enter their fifth decade in the music business having started in the 70′s and now are in the 10′s.
Their songs may not be at the top of the charts but they are still touring and recording for Sony BMG record company.
The Capris band that started in a neighborhood home in Pineville, Louisiana.
I was unaware at the time but a local band named The Capris were practicing at a neighborhood house in Pineville, Louisiana during the years I attended Pineville High School in the late 50′s and early 60′s.
The band went on to have one of their songs Here I Stand rated on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand. The kids at the show rated it higher than a Rolling Stones song by 93 percent for Capris and 86 percent for Rolling Stones.
I am not sure which Capris group was first but another group was calling themselves the Capris in the 50′s and had the hit song There’s A Moon Out Tonight.
The Duane Yates website which is still online despite his death tells of the early days of the group:
Boogie Kings album Walkin' the Dog was one of their best albums and their cover of Walkin' the Dog to me was better than the original.
The Fabulous Boogie Kings best epitomized the swamp pop music genre in Louisiana when they combined the swamp pop sound with soul music. It also contains some elements of Cajun, rhythm and blues and country western music. It weaves a smorgasboard of music genres into a distinctive sound usually not found outside of Louisiana and Texas.
Jerry Lacroix and Duane Yates sing “Philly Walk” a song written by band owner Ned Theall.
Duane Yates singing “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” in a song which best represents the swamp pop music genre.
Duane Yates graduated from Pineville High School in 1962 in my graduating class and went on to make a name in the music industry singing with The Fabulous Boogie Kings.
He passed away on May 23, 2009 after suffering a heart attack. It was ironic that he mentions Boogie Kings who passed away in the video and now he is also gone but his memory will live on for years among those who have seen him sing in person or heard his recordings.
Cookie and the Cupcakes sing the audio version of the swamp pop standard “Mathilda” which is another example of swamp pop music at its best.
Van Broussard singing the audio version of “Lord I Need Somebody Bad Tonight” which is so good it doesn’t need any video.
Rod Bernard sings the audio version of “This Could Go on Forever” another swamp pop classic from the 50′s.
The swamp pop sound may not be well known through the rest of the country but for Louisianians and some Texans it is part of our heritage.
Bobby Blue Bland covering the Merle Haggard hit song Today I Started Loving You Again.
I never thought I would never see the day a rhythm and blues artist would cover a Merle Haggard song but Bobby Blue Bland covers Today I Started Loving You Again which bears almost no resemblance to the hit that Haggard and Bonnie Owens released in 1968.
Bobby Blue Bland is now 80 years old and has been active in rhythm and blues since the early 1950′s.
These composite drawings of D.B. Cooper is all the identification law enforcement has had to go on since the day Cooper demanded a ransom of $200,000 while enroute on a Northwest Orient Airlines flight from Portland, Oregon to Seattle Washington on November 24, 1971.
When a passenger with the name Dan Cooper boarded a Northwest Orient Airlines flight from Portland, Oregon to Seattle, Washington and demanded a $200,000 ransom and four parachutes the stewardess who was handed the note thought it was a man asking for her phone number and put it in her pocket.
Cooper then told her to look at the note because he had a bomb and would blow up the plane if he wasn’t given $200,000 in cash and four parachutes which would be needed for him to jump from the plane.
I have been wondering how things may have changed that day if there had been cell phones with cameras in use in 1971. He still may have jumped from the plane but authorities would have a good photo of the extortionist and he likely would have been captured if he had survived the jump. Most importantly they would have had concrete identification of Cooper or the man pretending to be named Cooper.
Meanwhile after his demands officials in Seattle were rounding up the $200,000 Cooper demanded and took a photograph of each bill so they could trace them if they were found later. It took some time since they had to run ten thousand $20 bills through the machine to get the photographs.
After receiving the money and parachutes at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport Cooper ordered the plane to fly to Mexico City after it was refueled. The plan to go to Mexico City was abandoned when First Officer William Rataczak told Cooper that there was not enough fuel to fly to Mexico City under the conditions.
Cooper then decided to fly to Reno, Nevada after consulting with the crew where the plane was refueled and took off again. A little later Cooper lowered the aft stairs and left the plane and was never seen again. He jumped during a heavy rainstorm.
After the jump Cooper became known as D.B. Cooper. Rewards were offered for anyone finding one of the bills with the serial numbers known to be given to Cooper.
Nine years after the hijacking eight year old Brian Ingram found 294 of the $20 bills worth $5,880 on the banks of the Columbia River. He was allowed to keep $2,860 of the ransom money.
The airline industry now has new technology that prevents the lower stairway from being lowered during flight.
Cooper was given a non-functional parachute that was only for demonstrational use among the four parachutes and since it was not left on the plane he may have used that chute.
There have been some suspects who were investigated but weren’t charged with the hijacking of the Northwest Orient flight.
Still almost 40 years later I can’t help but wonder if Dan Cooper had survived and was using an alias if he would have been identified by someone carrying a cell phone with a camera making it more difficult for him to ever live a normal life. Today there might be hundreds of cell phones on a flight that could be used to take a photo if cell phones were allowed to be used on that flight.
