Last weekend, my oldest daughter was visiting us. My wife was telling her about the things she had coming up this week. My wife mentioned that she would be taking her father to see a Dr Bada on Tuesday. My daughter said she wondered if that was Donald’s father. My daughter had gone to high …
Author Archives: elvisgumby
Rules for Attending Virtual Meetings
The use of services like Zoom and Teams has greatly increased with the pandemic. I had never heard of Zoom before the pandemic and Teams was a tool that we had only started playing around with at work. These programs allow you to do group video calls. You can also share what you are working …
Elvis Week 2020 – An Apology
I would like to start by apologizing for personally causing the COVID-19 virus. Let me explain. I have been looking for a sign to tell me when I need to stop going to Elvis Week. I still get to meet new, interesting people each year. I enjoy seeing the changes to Graceland and the celebration. …
Senior Citizen’s Center Appreciation Cookout
My wife was the news editor of the weekly county newspaper in the town where we lived shortly after we were married. This is also the county where we grew up. As news editor of a county paper, she was the primary reporter for almost all newsworthy items. She covered city and county government meetings, …
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Buying Tequila
My friend Joe and I left the dormitory at college to go to the part of town that had the good record stores. I was in search of a song but didn’t know what it was called. There were two main record stores in town. Camelot Music was in the mall. Sounza Musik was a …
Making the Stick Out Your Tongue Video
In my previous blog post, I shared the story of the writing of Stick Out Your Tongue. From that story you should be able to tell that a music video was always part of the idea for the song. I went back and forth on exactly what the video should look like, but I finally decided on …
Writing Stick Out Your Tongue
Several people have asked me, “Why Stick Out Your Tongue? What does it mean?” Even my wife has asked me where it came from. I think the assumption is that it has naughty implications. I’m sure you can make anything suggestive, but it was never intended that way. The origins of using this phrase in …
Art’s Toybox – Hot Wheels
Hot Wheels cars were introduced in 1968. They were the coolest die cast cars that kids could play with. They were similar to Matchbox cars, but they had cooler designs. They also had a better axle design so they rolled smoother and faster than any other die cast car on the market. I was 6 …
Art’s Toybox – Creepy Crawlers
Toymaker Mattel created a toy in the 1960’s call Creepy Crawlers. It consisted of molds that you would fill with colored liquids called Plastigoop. Then you would put the mold in a special hot plate call the Thingmaker. The Thingmaker heated up to about 400° F and cured the liquid into a soft rubbery, plastic …
Art’s Toybox – The Dark Shadows Board Game
The television series Dark Shadows started in 1966 but really became popular in 1967. In 1968, a board game company named Whitman came out with a Dark Shadows board game. It was a typical 1960’s game that wasn’t that outstanding. In 1969, game company Milton Bradley came out with another game called the Barnabas Collins …
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