September 1946

        NOTE: Tim Hollis' comments appear in red; Russell Wells' are in blue.

We don't need no steenkin GAS to bake our "Wham Doodles."

A department store CLOSED for Labor Day.  Imagine that...


Don't look down!!   The installation of "the popsicle" and more than 50 years of checking to see if it's burning red or green.

Somehow I don't think the little girl shown in this ad is thinking, "Whoo-e-e-e-e!"

But I'll bet her PARENTS are!


September 2, 1946: Imagine school not starting until the day after Labor Day ... talk about your radical ideas!

There's nothing like being able to get your poultry, flour and DDT all in one location.  Beat that, Wal-Mart!

Interestingly, even thought WTNB had been on the air since June, it still did not appear in the News' radio grid three months later.

Darts for Dough was canceled because the network's liability insurance skyrocketed due to injuries resulting from wayward throws by contestants.  By the end of the show's run, the MC wore protective armor.  (Just kidding.  I think.)

Who needed Charles Atlas when WSGN was the key to women throwing themselves at your feet?
"Listen to 610, or else I'll kick sand in your radio"



J-E-L-L ... Oh, great.  "Why did we ever let Jack Benny slip through our fingers??   'Sold, American!' ... phooey!!"

Baby Snooks might've been the inspiration for the long-running TV program in Florence, Earline in Storyland.

In addition to playing the part of Jack Benny's long-suffering violin teacher, Mel Blanc was also the "voice" of Jack Benny's Maxwell automobile and of the railroad PA announcer ("KOOK!!...uh-MON-gaaaa!!!"). 

Pedro, of course, is still with us.  After his short-lived stint as Judy Conova's gardener, and a brief detour in cognito klept'ing Frito's in the late '60s, Pedro enjoys a long and successful relationship with South of the Border, a mammoth tourist trap at the N.C./S.C. line on I-95.  Their billboards, all featuring Pedro, are beloved sights all up and down the interstate.  If you're ever traveling in that part of the country, it's worth a stop. 

Pedro sez: Weather chili today, hot tomale. 






Back in those days, you bought your own books -- the state did not issue 'em, as they do today.
09/02/2006 -- 328 AM EDT  (modified 12/31/2015 - 712 PM EST)

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