28 May 2017

More '67 calendar "jokes"

I mentioned watching "Get Smart" as a kid back in old '67, which, by the way, was the year J. Robert Oppenheimer died at age 62, on February 18th, my parents' 25th wedding anniversary, but I certainly did also watch "F-Troop."  If I remember correctly, I wanted to be a comedian when I grew up. Thus the comments I made on some of the animal drawings in the IP "Executive Desk Calendar," of which here are two more.

07 May 2017

1967 Calendar

I was in the seventh and eighth grades in 1967.  I got a set of drums, a trap set, from my parents, after having received a snare drum for Christmas in 1966.  The condition under which I received the trap set, which was a used Slingerland set (black), was that I would join the Dial Jr. High band in the eighth grade.  Playing in the band would have been an embarrassment for me.  Not cool. I fortunately didn't have to play with the band in public, due to the fact that I was a beginner.  I was in the "training band," and recall spending quite a bit of the class period alone with the two other drummers in a practice room, shooting the breeze and not practicing. 

Also I remember getting sent to the principal's office for putting up a photo from Playboy in the bandroom window.  The older guy among us three training drummers brought it to school.  Not the only time I got sent to the principal's office that year, but the only band-period principal's office trip I can remember.

The credits at the end of A Serious Man say copyrighted material from Playboy was used with permission of the magazine, but I've looked for and haven't seen any Playboy material in the movie. It's most likely shown on the wall in the blurry background of the scene where Danny is practicing for "the Torah portion" (singing) of his bar mitzvah.  Nope it’s in the scenes where Danny and his profane friend pick the lock on Rabbi Turchek's desk drawer: the particular shot shows the drawer being closed, and lasts only about half a second. Instead of the contents of the drawer that Danny and his friend are shown rummaging through looking for Danny's transistor radio (and the $20 bill stuck in the faux leather case), the quick-shot of the closing drawer's contents shows different stuff, including a Playboy magazine.

I rediscovered a few years ago an International Paper Co. 1967 desk calendar that was kept on the desk in my parents bedroom that year: 


I wrote comical comments in it ("Get Smart" was one of my favorite shows)...



... more of which will be on display later.  In Rabbi Scott's office in the movie ("Things aren't so bad.  Look at the parking lot, Larry! Just look at that parking lot."), a calendar for May and June 1967 is shown, so I'm starting with May.