Last night we went to dinner with some good friends who were visiting from Minneapolis. The conversation covered our childhoods, music we grew up with, and TV shows we loved growing up. Eventually The Dukes of Hazzard came up. In fact, my dear friend Jen was so enamored with the show that she:
a) was a devoted member of the John Schneider fan club;
b) along with her siblings pretended their orange recliner was the General Lee when they played "Dukes of Hazzard" (Later J asked her if they threw a yellow blanket over the orange recliner when they pretended to drive Daisy Dukes's Jeep. Speaking of which, did Daisy's Jeep have a name, too? J is convinced it did.); and,
c) actually photographed the TELEVISION SET multiple times when the very last episode aired.
That is perhaps my favorite story ever about when life before VCRs met Super-fandom. (I remember back in 1984, before Michael Jackson's nose melted off and he got all creepy, actually clipping and saving the photo of him from the newspaper in which he recovered in a hospital bed after having his hair burned during the Pepsi commercial. This grosses me out so deeply now that I could quite possibly employ this anecdote as an appetite suppressant should the need arise.)
I didn't really care much for The Dukes of Hazzard, though we did play Dukes of Hazzard at Kindercare, and I ALWAYS had to be Daisy's homely cousin from out of town. In first grade, during our all-class Christmas gift exchange, the student who'd drawn my name forgot to buy me a gift (or couldn't afford to) and I was given one of the teacher's back-up gifts.
Guess what it was!
A Dukes of Hazzard colorforms set. I already had a Holly Hobby colorforms set, so worn and crusty you had to lick each hard, vinyl cut-out before it would stick to the glossy cardboard. And now that I think about it, would boys actually WANT to play with a Dukes of Hazzard colorforms set? I always thought the concept was more about decorating a set or dressing characters in different vinyl outfits.
In lieu of pondering that, please drop by Jessica Brody's brilliant Free Book Friday site--she posted a podcast interview with me, and we're giving away two signed copies of Driving Sideways. And if you haven't read her debut novel The Fidelity Files, check it out!
I LOVED the Dukes of Hazard! Um, perhaps not as much as your friend did, but a lot. One day, there was some kind of chemical spill across the street from our house and we had to evacuate. During the Dukes of Hazard. I was wicked pissed.
ReplyDeleteI loathed the Dukes of Hazard. Jon Schneider gave me the heebee jeebies. Although not as much as Michael Jackson
ReplyDeleteA dukes colorform set? That totally blows. Like the year I worked at mr steak, and we had a gift exchange, and my person got me NOTHING. Ouch.
ReplyDeleteAt my school, we thought it was cool that you could type some numbers on a calculator, turn it upside down and read "BOSS HOG." That was in the olden days, obviously.
ReplyDeletedaisys jeep was called dixie
ReplyDelete