Ken Ortiz
Hello all,
Thank you all very much for your advice and suggestions about my approaching Medicare enrollment. What made this more complicated was that our company annual enrollment for 2024 was in early November and to make it even additionally more complicated was that our company selected a different health care provider for our 2024 health plans. But, even MORE wrenches were thrown in as my current PCP (primary care physician who I have had for several years) took another position in September and my Optometrist retired earlier this year. So I will be starting 2024 with a whole new crew. As of now, I will be staying with my company health insurance. The good thing is that my clinic is in the network for our new provider. But it looks like I will still have to get on my SS website when the time comes to say I have employer insurance. YIKES! My brain cells are overloaded.
Ah, yes...music in our day...I was exposed to all the different genres growing up. We had an Aunt living with us for a few years when I was in grade school so I got to listen to her collection of 45’s. And since I was raised by my grandparents, I also was exposed to their music and LP’s. And since I am of Spanish heritage, there were Spanish LP's in our family collection. So, here you go Ed, I am finally chiming in.
My own collection started when I was just a a wee lad as I remember having Puff The Magic Dragon and The Little Engine That Could LP’s. When I got a bit older, I started collecting 45’s (of course I bought them at Shapiros). My best friend growing up had 2 older brothers so we would listen to their 45’s. I think it was in 6th grade when I got my very own small record player for my bedroom. Before that, I would use the family stereo. It was a Knight console cabinet with a phonograph, a separate radio tuner and a separate amplifier with tubes in the back and knobs for volume, bass, treble and switches to turn on/off loudness, hi-cut, low-cut, etc. I was already becoming the junior sound engineer, fiddling with our stereo. I think our radio unit had AM, FM, and also other bands like shortwave. We had 2 big speakers with separate woofers, tweeters, etc, and I also learned how to plug/unplug all those components. It had the spindle for LP’S, but we had to put those red (were there other colors?) plastic adapters for 45’s to go on the spindle. We eventually got a 45 adapter that we could put in our spindle to use 45’s without the adapters.
One thing I learned in our older age…I may not remember where my cell phone is (“Oh crap! It’s in my hand! I am holding it!”, like that never happened to you), but when I hear a song from the past that I remember, the lyrics come to me. What a vault our mind is! So here is a small sampling of song lyrics I remember growing up and how many do you recall? Can you recall the rest of the lyrics? I limited it to the music before we got to Lane:
- Puff the magic dragon...
- In the year 2525…
- Guitarzan…and his jungle band…
- Betcha by golly wow…
- Good morning, Starshine…
- If you don’t know me by now…
- Saturday, in the park…
- Hey there, lonely girl…
- One bad apple don’t spoil the whole bunch girl…
- Got to be there…
- Bye bye miss american pie…
- If I fell in love with you…
- She…she told me that she loved me…
- Break up, to make up…
- Just an old fashioned love song…
- So let the sideshow begin…hurry hurry…
- One less, bell to answer…
- Oh I hear her voice as the cold winds blow, on the sweet music on my radio…
- I want to go outside, in the rain…
- Why do you build me up, build me up, buttercup baby…
- If I could, I’d like to be, a great big movie star…
The good thing is you can go to U-tube (or Alexa, etc,) and listen to these songs and even with lyrics. But, there were a couple of instrumentals in our younger days like:
- Love is blue
- Midnight Cowboy theme
- Scorpio (where we did the Funky Penguin)
- Theme from Shaft (somewhat instrumental, plus, this is one where I would crank up the bass and loudness on the stereo and drive my parents and my downstairs Aunt crazy along with Zeppelin’s Black Dog)
So, one more thing that I was puzzled about, I went to see my mom for her 82nd birthday at my sister’s house in Berwyn last month. We had a good time with cake and stuff and I noticed the sippy cup that my Mom uses as we encourage her to drink more water. My sister got it at a thrift store and it says: “Lane Staff” (with a paw print). So how come it is blue? Does the Lane Tech in an alternate universe have blue and white instead of myrtle and gold? Did it come from the quantum realm? Help me please! By the way, I recently read “Look out for the little guy" by Scott Lang (Ant Man) and I really enjoyed it (for all you Marvel lovers out there). Yes, I grew up with all things Marvel, comics, TV shows, even Not Brand Echh comics, etc. I got all those comics and also MAD magazines at Shapiro’s too. Too bad I did not save them because I had a decent collection.
Here is the mystery sippy cup:

So, here is a Mad Magazine book I came across a while ago. From 1964 (Front and back):


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