Power Rangers, Hot dogs, and Ed.

In the five or so years after my parents split up, before my father married again, he lived in a number of places. The first (and still most cherished of these places), was a house he (or we?) christened “Gibbons Shack”, Gibbons being my father’s landlord, and a man I now recall as wearing a yellow rain slicker at all times and looking fairly like the creepy-turned-lovely old man from Home Alone, though I’m suddenly aware of the fact that I may be making all this up in my head. It’s possible I never met him. Anyhow, Le Shack was a stone’s throw from Mattapoisett Beach, often had no warm running water, and was filled with a lot more junk food than was found at my mother’s home, meaning it was wicked rad. And it was during the glory days of being obsessed with MY MEAN UNRESPONSIVE OLDER CHINESE BROTHER, and when we were at Dad’s we still got to share a room, our “room” being two mattresses pushed together on the floor, behind the futon my father slept on. Again, totally rad.

After leaving Gibbons Shack, my Dad upgraded (or downgraded?) to some new digs in the same town. This time, he moved into a very large, very cool, old white home right near Tedeschi’s and the laundry mat. The laundry mat was then possibly the coolest place to spend a Saturday afternoon, so I was pretty pleased. Plus, in this house, my Dad had his own room, and Alex and I had our own room, complete with beds that raised off the floor, and some assorted bookshelves and boxes full of dress-up. (UH DRESS-UP HOW I MISS YOU SO!)

The house was owned by a woman with crazy-red hair, named Suzanne. She lived in the house with us, along with another boarder, some dude who’s name I no longer remember. The dude had a bedroom right off the main staircase, on the first floor, which I crept by numerous times a day on tiptoe. I believe he had facial hair, and was younger than my father and he slept a lot. I think he appeared in the film Empire Records. Then again, maybe I am just remembering my father, who used to have facial hair and used to be younger than he is now. Hmmm. Well, anyhow, there was definitely some young, hip, dude living in the house, as well as a couple who had their own little section, and therefore their own entrance, and did not fraternize with the rest of us. Their loss.

My memories of that time are pretty much as follows:

1) playing in some sort of basement situation with my brother and this blonde chick who lived around the bend and being like “uh why are they so much older and talking about stuff I don’t GET all the time UH”
2) one time Alex swearing at me in front of the chick to totally impress her and I told my Dad and Alex got in trouble and I was totally fake crying about it and I still feel guilty. (Sorry, Al.)
3) choking on a piece of bread with butter on it in my bed and then being scared to eat for weeks. (Who, me, dramatic??? PLEAESE.) My dad used to bring us untoasted bread with unmelted butter on it before we went to bed each night, often AFTER we had brushed our teeth. MEN.
4) Eating copious amounts of Mac n’ cheese
5) Watching TV. A lot. I went through a very-hardcore Clarissa Explains It All phase in that house, as well as a pretty intense Power Rangers obsession, which my brother shared as well. (I was the pink one, DUH. I believe you were yellow, Alex? Having seen that show in recent years, it’s clear that it was created to be watched while on serious drugs, and I’m not sure what was going on in my head at the time.) Regardless, NOTHING, AND I MEAN NOTHING, could touch my love of Star Search, which brings me to the long-winded point of this post: Ed McMahon died this morning, and that makes me really sad. 

That show was a huge part of my childhood, and I used to get as excited to watch it as I assume those little kiddies do today, with their American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance? nonsense. I hate to admit (except that I really don’t….), it’s probably one of the reasons I am now heading to NYC, imagining that I will one day be yukking it up in a sketch with Goddess Wiig, because I used to prance around the living room of that house eating hot dogs and ice-cream sandwiches and carrying my Beauty and the Beast version of the Ken doll, imagining that one day Ed would be giving me stars. It was like the Oscars, only MULTIPLE times a week! He was just the chillest host ever. Whenever any kid lost, Ed was always super kind and sympathetic to them, and whenever anyone won he totally got excited, as if he actually cared. And coming in with fouuuuuuuuuuuur staaaaaaaaaars winners from last week… (Ah, that voice!) Even our girl Brit got her start there!

And even though one-time, in, like, fifth grade, I got one of his sweepstakes things in the mail, and totally thought my Mom had won a million dollars and was like shaking with happiness because I thought it was real…well, I don’t hold it against the man. He was a great part of American culture, and I know he meant a lot to older generations from all his years on The Tonight Show. He was a part of our generation too, and I will miss him.