November 2016 - Page 3 of 7 - Ramblin' with Roger

Hypnotized at the county fair

The event was so surreal that I probably DIDN’T talk about it.

Here’s a story I didn’t tell you, about being hypnotized, because it didn’t convey enough. But suddenly, it does.

In August of 2015, The Wife, The Daughter, The Daughter’s good friend and I went to the Altamont Fair, which is the joint fair of Albany and Schenectady Counties in upstate New York. I don’t go every year – my family went without me in 2016 – but it’s enjoyable enough.

At one of the stages, a hypnotist was looking for subjects to come on stage. The Daughter nagged and pleaded with me to participate, and I ended up being the last of eight or ten people to volunteer.

He put us “under”, saying whatever he said. I’m aware that I’m on the stage, but follow his commands to:
slur my words
make my most romantic face (Head tilted, doe eyes, pursed lips, I’m told)
play an instrument (electric bass I was surprised he knew I was playing the bass rather than a guitar)
drive fast around curves

Later, The Wife said that he dismissed a couple of people that he was unable to hypnotize. She thought I was just acting, faking, but I was not.

About my story Baptized Again, about me speaking in tongues, Uthaclena asked, and Arthur agreed:

How do YOU interpret your experience of glossolalia?

That is the thing: I didn’t interpret it. No one slipped something in my drink. The event was so surreal that I probably DIDN’T talk about it, not out of embarrassment, but because I guess I wanted it to have more of an impact. But no, a week or two later, I was busy leading my debauched life.

Maybe it was God’s sense of humor; if there’s an afterlife, that’ll be one of the things I’ll have to ask Her. “What the heck WAS that?” And “How did one of my glasses lens shatter when I was a kid, while I was wearing them?” Hey, THAT’S what I should ask youse guys: “If there’s an afterlife, what earthly experience would you want to be explained?”

Then Chris asked:

Was it like a trance state?

I then realized that my speaking in tongues was very much like “a state of consciousness in which a person apparently loses the power of voluntary action and is highly responsive to suggestion or direction,” which is the textbook definition of being hypnotized. And I must be susceptible to it.

Music Throwback Saturday: I’m Your Puppet

They were cousins James Purify and Robert Lee Dickey

Usually, I pick a song that just came to me in this feature. But this time, I decided to look at the Billboards Hot 100 singles charts for 50 years ago, November 19, 1966

1. You Keep Me Hangin’ On – The Supremes, Last Week: 7
The song was at 27 the week before its rise to the Top 10. After going to 1, it went 3, 5, 5 then out of the Top 10

2. Good Vibrations – The Beach Boys, Last Week: 4
The song was at 17 the week before its rise to the Top 10. It stayed another week at 2. behind Winchester Cathedral, before going to 1 on December 10, then down to 3, 8, and out of the Top 10

3. Winchester Cathedral The New Vaudeville Band, Last Week: 6
The song went from 24 (November 12) to 6, 3, 3, 1, 3 (behind Good Vibrations and Mellow Yellow), then back to 1 for two weeks, before its slow slide 3, 4, 8, out of the Top 10
LISTEN here or here

4 Last Train To Clarksville -The Monkees, Last Week: 2
It entered the Top 10 on October 8, after being 18 the week before, then from 6, 4, 3, 2, 1 (November 5), 2, 4, 7, 10. But after a one-week hiatus, the Monkees were back in the Top 10 with future 1, I’m a Believer

5. Poor Side Of Town – Johnny Rivers, Last Week: 1
On October 15, it was 11, then 7, 4, 3, 1 (November 12), 5, 5, 9, and out
LISTEN here or here (truncated version)

6. Devil With A Blue Dress On & Good Golly Miss Molly -Mitch Ryder And The Detroit Wheels, Last Week: 9
On November 5, it was 18, then 9, 6, 4 for four weeks(!), 5 and off. Mellow Yellow and the Top Three songs here kept it at 4 for so long.
LISTEN here or here

7. I’m Your Puppet – James & Bobby Purify, Last Week: 10
On November 5, 11, then 10, 7, 6, 6, then off the Top 10
They were cousins James Purify and Robert Lee Dickey (d. 2012), from Florida, who had three more Top 40 hits.
LISTEN here or here
Rerecorded in 1976 and became a hit in the UK. LISTEN here

8. 96 Tears -? (Question Mark) & The Mysterians
Last Week: 3
Back on September 17, it was 25, then 8, 6, 3, 3, 2 (behind Reach Out I’ll Be There – Four Tops), 1 (October 29), 2, 3, 8, and out of the Top 10
LISTEN here or here

9. If I Were A Carpenter -Bobby Darin, Last Week: 8
On October 29, 11, then 8, 8, 9 and out of the Top 10
LISTEN here or here

10. Rain On The Roof – The Lovin’ Spoonful Last Week: 15
Its only week in the Top 10

(Yes, I didn’t link to artists I’ve likely will link to, or have already done so in the past.)

Paranoia strikes deep in the heartland

Fredonia, NY – July 17, 2016

The Wife had made all the travel arrangements for our vacation, and she was pretty successful, except for that Ramada near Ashtabula, OH . To quote Elizabeth Taylor, who was quoting Bette Davis, “What a dump.”

But something was amiss with our reservation in Fredonia, NY. We’d be traveling much of the day, and it was already 8 pm. While the Wife and Daughter went into the hotel, trying successfully to get a room, I sat in the passenger seat in the car.

And for some reason – probably watching the news too much, with black men getting killed, police getting killed – I started wondering what would happen if a police officer happened to come by, wanting to know what I was sitting there. Now I’ve waited in the car for years, without incident. Why it was an issue at that moment was probably because it was getting dark, and/or from fatigue.

I realized that if a cop HAD come up to me, I couldn’t roll down the window. We used to have two of those car fobs, but one got lost, and I didn’t have it.

In short order, I came up with all sorts of scenarios by which I could get shot because my hands couldn’t be seen. I bolted out of the car in a near-panic. To distract myself, I pulled out my tablet and played hearts.

The Daughter came back, and yelled, “Did you get it?” I didn’t know what “it” was. “It” was the sunset, which was gorgeous, and I was utterly oblivious to it.

She mocked me for playing my game, but I was in a whole ‘nother head.

A few weeks later, I was at work when I got a notice that there was a bank robbery in a building within the visual range of my office. The suspect was a black male in his 40s or 50s. I’m in my 60s, but I was nearby. I recalled this article. That same wave of discomfort ran over me.
###

So who can identify the source of the lyric that is the title of this piece? (Besides Dustbury.)

Mom would have been 89

I suspect that it was my mom who engineered the household’s purchase of the Encyclopedia Americana.

Musing about my next birthday coming up in a few months, I was wondering how I would remember how old I was, I realized that it would be easy: two to the sixth power, or 100000 base 2.

My mom was thrilled that I was learning base 2 when I was in fifth grade. You know base 2? Unlike base 10, which has ten digits, 0-9, base 2 only has two digits, 0 and 1.
1= 1 base 2
2= 10 base 2
3= 11 base 2
4= 100 base 2
5= 101 base 2
and so on

She was excited because, I was told, base 2 is used in COMPUTERS! 1 is on, 0 is off. So this would mean I could be a computer programmer!

As it turned out, the only thing I ever learned about computers is how to turn them on and off, and not always even that.

But I loved base 2 equivalent placeholders, and I could recite them – 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, 16384 – without even thinking about them. This seemed to please my mother.

But I have very few other recollections about her talking to me about my school work. She was a work-outside-the-home mom when most of my friends had their moms staying at home. That was time-consuming and must have been enervating.

Still, I suspect that it was she who engineered the household’s purchase of the Encyclopedia Americana. And it was her additional income that made it possible.

Since they were expensive for our family’s household income, I made sure they got well used. I’m not sure if anyone else used them much, but over two or three years, I read all 20-odd volumes all the way through. And my parents, at my urging, bought these annual updates, and I devoured them too.

Mom attended Daniel Dickinson school, as my sisters and I did; I’d written about it periodically, including here.

Anyhoo, mom would have been 89 today. And I think to call her, so I pick up the phone sometimes before I realize that I can’t. I am surprised I haven’t figured that out yet; she’s been gone nearly six years.

I have no idea where this picture was taken; she was probably single at the time.

Great American Smokeout 2016

I have no idea what kind of impact the anti-smoking The Truth campaign has.

Tomorrow is the Great American Smokeout 2016. i don’t know how successful it is, but I am in favor.

In the kiosks for the Capital District Transit Authority, where one waits for buses, there are very prominent signs directing people NOT to smoke in there.

Naturally, it’s right under those very signs that folks are MOST likely to light up, not unlike this picture. I’ve been tempted to take surreptitious photos of this phenomenon and post them online, but my concern for their privacy, alas, trumps doing that.

My hatred for cigarette smoke is well-documented. The Daughter, who has asthma, likewise hates it. I probably mentioned that I once lied and told someone I had asthma to prevent him from smoking in the early 1970s.

I walk down the path between my house and the next one – passing by a treasure trove of cigarette butts – and, long before I turn the corner, I can tell there are smokers on the front porch of the house on the neighbor to my right.

If I go out the front door, it’s usually the old man, standing on the sidewalk, puffing away, as far away from the house on the left, and therefore, as close to our house, as possible, and still be on the other side of the property line. We all can smell it, and occasionally, even in our house.

I also have no idea what kind of impact The Truth campaign has. But The Daughter pointed out these ads that she liked, so:

#FinishIT | Smoking Gap | truth

#Squadless | Peepaw | truth

#Squadless | Photoshop | truth

Truth Campaign Calls Out Celebrity Smokers

There are PLENTY more of these, geared to a demographic somewhat younger than I. If you smoke, quit, if not for your sake, then for mine.