Ohio still home to 'A Christmas Story'

[SeattleVet]

33. Excelsior, ya fathead!

I spent many nights with the transistor radio under my pillow listening to Shep's musings about life, the universe, and creeping meatballism. A couple of years ago I started listening to the "Brass Figlagee" series of podcasts from iTunes. While some of the material is dated, a lot of it is as relevant today as it was when he spoke the words.

In a 'flashback moment', I was listening to one of these podcasts when I heard Shep read my name, and a question I had sent in ('When's your next book coming out?'). I had completely forgotten about sending in a postcard for his 'Second Annual Names Show', where he just read names off of postcards that listeners had sent in.

So I'm this kid, see... and my best friend and I send in these postcards to WOR radio with our names to be read on the air. Here it is, almost 50 years later, and I'm sitting here on the other coast, in Seattle, listening to recordings of some old Jean Shepherd programs. Suddenly I hear my name come through the earbuds. Followed by my friend's name and his comment - 'I fly, too' (Shep was a Private Pilot, and we were cadets in the Civil Air Patrol, and getting some 'stick time'. Shep's reply was 'Yeah, but I use an airplane, kid.) It all came flooding back. A few weeks later I actually got back in touch with this long-lost friend on Facebook, and told him about what had just happened. 40-plus years later, and a coast away, Shep is *still* having an effect on people!

Also, I just found out a week or so ago, another older gentleman that I am acquainted with here was also a huge Shep fan. I gave him the info to get the Brass Figlagee and some of Bergman's podcasts.

Let's go mill, and hurl some invectives...