Not Quite Topo Gigio .... But Kinda Cute

This cute little guy is the real Topo Gigio.

Topo Gigio was the lead character of a children's puppet show on Italian and Spanish television in the early 1960s. He became popular in the US and the world after being featured on The Ed Sullivan Show. 

As a kid I just loved watching Ed and Topo Gigio together, especially when Topo would ask "Eddie" to kiss him. I loved that Topo would make stone-faced Ed smile, and even laugh a little. It was so endearing. I still love watching video clips of those two together. 

So, on Saturday morning, I couldn't resist picking up this strange little Topo Gigio-like Christmas mouse at Miracle Hill on Pete Hollis Blvd. It still has the original paper label showing it was made Japan and trademarked by T. K. R. 

Topo was an Italian creation of artist Maria Perego. The official Topo Gigio website is at this link: http://www.topogigio.it/ 

Given Topo's Italian "heritage", and the colors in Italy's flag, red, green and white, it was very easy for Topo....or this Topo imitation...to become a Christmas ornament or decoration.  

Anyway, I've never seen one of these and it was, to me, such a novelty that I just had to bring "Fake Topo" home!

The Gene Autry Show at Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium

One memory that has always stood out in my mind is the time Mama took me to the Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium to see Gene Autry and Annie Oakley. I am pretty sure that the year was 1956. I had never been to a show like this, so it was a big deal for me. It was probably a big deal for Mama, too, as she was a real Gene Autry fan. Even though I was so young, I always cherished my Souvenir Program from this show and, after being stored, moved, and thumbed through for 58 years, it's still in pretty good condition!

Though I don't remember anything about the show itself, what I do remember is when Gene Autry rode his horse, Champion, down the aisle from the back of the auditorium and right up onto the stage! Boy, was I impressed! Here is a picture from the February 5, 1956 Spartanburg Herald-Journal of Gene riding Champion down the aisle. 

Here is the article that was with the above picture.

Inside the front cover of the Souvenir Program was this ad for Gene Autry merchandise. 

Here is the rest of the souvenir booklet. On any of these pictures, you can click on it to make it larger and more easy to read.

GENE AUTRY

ANNIE OAKLEY

THE AUTRYS OFF THE RANGE

BIOGRAPHY OF A CHAMPION

PAT BUTTRAM

THE CASS COUNTY BOYS

CARL COTNER

THE STRONGS - RUFE DAVIS - AUDREY HAAS 

and

 THE CYCLING VILLENAVES

GENE'S WARDROBE

Salem Cigarettes Sample Packs and Memories

Why yes, back in my youth, sometimes you really could get something for nothing! In this case, 4 free cigarettes. For a time, cigarette manufacturers gave away sample packs of cigarettes, like this one pictured.






We found this empty Salem cigarette sample pack in our attic. I don't know an exact year to date sample cigarette packs. There is no Zip Code on the package, so it would be from before 1963, the year zips became "required". There is a health warning on the package. 

I imagine cigarette manufacturers had tables set up in grocery and other stores to distribute these sample packs, much like they do food samples in stores now. My parents both worked in grocery stores and I remember them bringing home samples of various brands of cigarettes.  

Each package contained 4 cigarettes. This Salem package is a "flip-top" box and I believe the others I remember were in the same type package. 

Salem was my brand of choice when I smoked, so this package brings back memories. Back in the mid 1960s, my best friend and I would go shopping downtown on Saturdays. We would take smoke breaks in the ladies lounge at J.C. Penney's. That was about as rebellious as the two of us ever were. Neither of us smoke now.

Junior High Mirror - Greenville (SC) Jr. High School Newspaper - May 1963

This is my copy of the the May 23, 1963 issue of the Junior High Mirror, which was the student newspaper at Greenville Junior High. Sadly this school, and even the building itself, no longer exists. It was located on Westfield Street in Greenville, South Carolina, atop Prospect Hill. I attended the 7th through the 9th grades at GJHS, and have to say I thoroughly enjoyed...actually loved...this school. It was here I became a "full blooded" Greenville High student. 

This is an image of how Greenville Junior High School looked in 1937. When I attended GJHS from 1961-64, it looked the same! The interior was quite dated and there were actual "potholes" in some of the hallway floors on the lower level. It was a great school though, and it felt like "tradition", which I liked a lot. 

Above is page 2 of the Junior High Mirror. As you have probably already discerned, this May 1963 Mirror is the final issue of the 1962-63 school year. As the final issue, there is the "Last Will & Testament" of the 9th grade class, bequeathing a "portion of their worldly goods to the rising eighth and ninth graders".

Page 3 contains the "Class Prophecy".

Page 4 contains the Ninth Grade Class History and an article listing students with perfect attendance for the 1962-63 school year.

After attending grades 7-9 at Greenville Junior High, I was excited to be promoted to the 10th grade. In 1964, I would get to go to the "school on the hill", Greenville  High!*

*After attending Greenville Senior High in 1964-65, my parents moved us out to the "boonies" of Greenville County and I was forced to attend Wade Hampton High School. I graduated from WHHS, but never felt that I belonged there. I'll always be a "Greenville High girl".

Santa and the Easter Bunny use Western Union

Going through a box of Barbie doll clothes, I found two papers folded up in the bottom. I was surely surprised at what they were. Western Union Telegrams, addressed to me! It seems I just don't remember getting these at all, but there they were!

The Santa-Gram was the oldest, but not by much, dated December 1959, and sent to me at 111 Lowndes Hill Rd. in Greenville, SC, our address at that time. With an origination address of "North Pole", the telegram said: "From the land of snow and ice, with a pack of presents nice, my trusty deer are bringing me down, your house will be my first stop in town.= Santa Claus ="

The next telegram was the Easter Bunny-Gram, dated April 1960, and sent to me at 10 Dale Dr. in Greenville, SC. With an origination location of Bunnyland, this telegram said: "A little Happy Easter wish that's coming just to say: Sure hope a real fine girl has a real fine Easter Day.= Peter Rabbit =" 

Besides finding precious papers that my parents had taken the time to be sure I would receive (You do know they talked to Santa and Peter Rabbit to get this done, right?), I also got valuable information in the dates of the telegrams. Those dates, December 1959 and April 1960, tell me that it was at the first of the year in 1960 that we moved to Dale Dr. from Lowndes Hill Rd. I had often wondered just when we moved but had no way to pinpoint it. 

Barbecue at LaMotte's Drive-In

LaMotte's Drive-In Restaurant - West Main Street - Spartanburg, SC

I found the picture up above a long time ago somewhere on the internet and grabbed it for my memories. I have no idea of when that photo was taken, nor do I know who to give credit to for it, but whoever you are...Thanks a bunch!

You can't tell it with black & white pictures, but LaMotte's building exterior was Art Deco with light pink-ish colored stucco. Very cool! 
  

LaMotte's was located on West Main St. between Forest and Walker Streets. The above picture is from the September 16, 1972 edition of the Spartanburg Herald-Journal newspaper. According to the caption on this photo LaMotte's was "A brief but popular landmark in Spartanburg in the 1940s and 1950s" and was "one of the forerunners of today's short order sandwich houses".

I remember going to LaMotte's with my parents in the early 1950s. They ordered me a pimento cheese sandwich “lightly toasted” and we ate in the car. Although I know that pimento cheese is what they ordered me many times, I mostly remember the BBQ sandwich....minced pork with a delicious red sauced, finely minced slaw on it and a toasted bun. I remember my mother saying, “It's cool weather now, we can go to LaMotte's and get the BBQ” because she was afraid of spoiled meat, pork in particular, in the summertime. LaMotte's is long gone. I wish I could find a BBQ like this again. 

Above is a composite pic of both the front & back of an advertising matchbook cover from LaMotte's which my husband found on eBay and bought for me as a surprise. That was so great of him to do! And look! On the matchbook cover is proof..."LaMotte's For Better Barbecue Sandwiches".....so the barbecue WAS special at LaMotte's!

Whether the BBQ was as good as I remember is probably something I'll never know for sure. I do know that going to LaMotte's with my parents is forever embedded in my fondest childhood memories. 

Blithe Spirit 1964 Play at Greenville Little Theater

My first time attending a play, Noel Cowards' Blithe Spirit, was in December 1964 at the Greenville Little Theater. Julia, my very best friend (still to this very day) invited me to go with her. As well as I can remember, her father dropped us off & picked us back up afterwards. I am grateful to her for that experience because it opened up a whole new world for me. 

Back in 1964, the "Little Theater", as every one called it, was located a building that was previously an old Air Force Glider Base movie theatre on Lowndes Hill Road in Greenville, SC. The old movie theater had been vacant since the end of the war and was purchased in 1946 for the purpose of a permanent and larger location for the Greenville Little Theater, which had previously staged plays in the auditorium at Greenville Senior High School. Below is a photo of how the Greenville Little Theater looked in the 1950s and in 1964, it didn't look much different. As a 15 year old at her first "real" stage play, this was a grand theater.

Blithe Spirit was not only my first "real" stage play, it boasted a star, Murray Matheson! This was especially exciting to me as I was going to see someone I had seen on TV! Oh, he had been in stage plays in London, Paris and Berlin, but I wasn't familiar with all that. He had been in TV shows I had watched, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Omnibus, Peter Gunn, Adventures in Paradise, and he was coming directly to Greenville from Hollywood where he had been filming for the TV show A Man From U.N.C.L.E.!!! And he was so handsome too, for an old guy...remember, I was 15 and he was all of 52!

I really cannot say that I remember much about Blithe Spirit as a play, but I know I enjoyed it and treasure the experience. I also am still thrilled that I got to see Murray Matheson! I remember being fascinated with watching a professional actor. I still think he was a handsome man, too.