By Mike Olszewski
Ron Adams wears a lot of hats. I’m not referring to his ever-present baseball cap, but rather, his efforts to preserve pop culture. He’s the epitome of the “monster kid.” No, not the difficult child our parents promised would end up in juvenile hall, but the guy who reminds us about our shared histories. And that keeps him very busy.
Adams is the long-time promoter of the Monster Bash Conference near Pittsburgh that’s held twice a year, and the Monster Bash Film Festival at Canton’s Majestic Theatre. He also publishes his award-winning magazine and hosts a radio show. He’s an essayist penning compositions as “Rondo Remembers” that are trips back to what we thought was a much simpler time. Thankfully, Adams has finally collected many of them in a new book titled “Flashback – Monsters, Music, and Comic Books,” which covers a lot more ground than described in the title.
Drive-Ins & Pop
Popular culture drew us together in a far-flung community of shared interests and values, thanks in great part to radio, TV and movies. Much of it was linked to marketing aimed at young wallets with expendable cash from allowances, odd jobs and paper routes.
I never got an allowance. My parents would say, “I’ll give you money when you need it,” and when I asked to buy something, the standard answer was, “You don’t need that.” Still, Adams paints a picture that’s like looking at a movie of our lives: Parents packing the kids in a car with pillows and blankets for a trip to the local drive-in, and the sound of crunching gravel as your dad found a spot and the tinny speaker that hung on the door. (Stay away from cars with couples on date night. The show should be on the screen.) There were pop brands with names like Cherokee Red, Hillbilly Joose, and Mountain Dew and the Cotton Club products that you needed a “church key” (a can opener) to access.
He takes us back to the smells of our childhood: a trip to the barber shop, where the air was filled with talcum powder, bay rum, and witch hazel. The smart kids went on the busiest day to catch up on the latest comic books while waiting their turn.
Adams writes of the red blotches of iodine on our scrapes and bruises—first aid that would horrify doctors today. We were fearless, he notes, playing with high-temperature toys like Vac-u-forms and Creepy Crawler molds. And let’s not forget woodburning sets and the original Silly Putty that not only melted but also stained clothing and carpet.
Ah, the smells of your first day back at school—the odors of Magic Markers, Ditto machines, and, after a few weeks, the pervasive scent of a soured metal lunch box.
He writes about trading cards, Saturday matinees, supermarket vending machines, the Aurora model kits and those ads in the back of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine offering X-Ray specs “that really worked,” live monkeys (!), and seahorses that you just added water to bring to life.
Adams reminds us that we ate Pixy Stix (a favorite candy) and candy we only ate if there was nothing else around (Necco wafers). And what was the point of sucking out sugar water packed in wax tubes or bottles, or chewing bright red wax lips?
There were TV series like “Supercar” and “Thunderbirds” with marionettes. I tried to re-enact a scene from one of the shows with that jerky puppet motion and my parents screamed at me, thinking I was making fun of “that poor kid down the street.”
“Flashback” recalls a time when kids captured lightning bugs in jars, ran through backyards with hot sparklers on the Fourth of July, and vending machines that sold both candy and cigarettes.
Take my advice: Don’t lend out this book because it won’t come back, and don’t start reading it before bed because you won’t want to fall asleep. It showed me how much more of my childhood I still have to live.
THRIVE TRIVIA – Last issue, I asked the name of the Cleveland-born actor who played the character Oswald Cobblepot. That was the name of the nefarious Penguin in the “Batman” TV series, played by Burgess Meredith. Next time, what do the films “The Abominable Dr. Phibes,” “Snakes on a Plane” and the “Wizard of Oz” have in common? You’ll be surprised.
Photo: Creepy Crawler mold
