The Apocryphal Penguin: Aunt Bee

(Wikipedia defines the term apocrypha as a word “used with various meanings, including "hidden", "esoteric", "spurious", "of questionable authenticity", and "Christian texts that are not canonical". The story that follows is handed down in my family as history, with no one to actually verify its veracity. In the interest of full disclosure, this story is possibly apocryphal and I am making no claims that they are 100% accurate. If any of my siblings read this and make comments / corrections/ or have different memories, I will share them too.)

And so now without further ado:

Getting Down with Aunt Bee or Brush with Greatness

If you look at Wikipedia for Aunt Bee, it will tell you that “Beatrice Taylor (commonly known as Aunt Bee) is a fictional character from the 1960s American television sitcom The Andy Griffith Show. The show was televised on CBS from October 3, 1960, until April 1, 1968. The character migrated to the spinoff Mayberry R.F.D. (1968-1971) when The Andy Griffith Show ended its run.” Click the link for the actress and you learn that “Frances Elizabeth Bavier (December 14, 1902 – December 6, 1989) was an American stage and television actress. Originally from the New York theatre, Bavier worked in film and television from the 1950s. She played the continuing role of Aunt Bee on The Andy Griffith Show and Mayberry R.F.D. from 1960 to 1970, and won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Comedy Actress for the role in 1967.”

What this does not tell you is that Ms. Bavier lived on 215th Street in Bayside, NY until she relocated to Hollywood in the mid 1950’s. That house I am very familiar with. You see, my parents bought that home from Ms. Bavier and we moved into it in 1959, a couple of years and many hours of renovations later.

Now for the apocrypha part. Were my parents friends of hers? Can’t say. Did they keep in touch with her? Don’t think so. As for the ever popular internet meme “It didn’t happen unless there are pictures, I offer this:

That picture of Aunt Bee and the baby Penguin was taken in my grandmother’s house where my parents and I and my brother Mike lived until we moved to the Bee home in 1959. That chair complete with some of my grandmothers crocheting was in the living room with those windows overlooking the street and front stoop. That is not a grimace on my face, but rather a youngsters attempt at a smile. Do I remember her? Nope. But there were always reminders at home of having been connected to Hollywood royalty. This included the purple and black tile in the upstairs bathroom. The second picture is from Google images for comparison sake for those that might doubt the tale.

The Apocryphal Penguin

In response to this post, Mrsfabp mentioned that I was getting nostalgic in my blogging and asked me to write about an experience I had as a very young child. In the interest of full disclosure, this story is possibly apocryphal. Wikipedia defines the term apocrypha as a word “used with various meanings, including "hidden", "esoteric", "spurious", "of questionable authenticity", and "Christian texts that are not canonical". So in essence what I am saying is that this story is handed down in my family as history, canon, with no one to actually be able to verify its veracity. I will relate it and several other stories under the “Apocryphal Penguin” heading as such, making no claims that they are 100% accurate. If any of my siblings read this and make comments / corrections/ or have different memories, I will share them too. And so now without further ado:

The Trike and Stoop Challenge

When I was very young, we lived one block from where I spent most of my growing up years. Actually it was about 300 feet as the two different backyards connected with each other. This house, typical for the Queens neighborhood (think Archie Bunker) had both a front stoop and a back stoop. For those who might not know, stoop is New Yorkese for a set of stairs leading up to or down from a door. The one on the front of the house was brick. The one on the back into the yard was wood.

Now as story is told in my family, I was riding a tricycle around the house and for some reason decided to ride out the back door into the yard. Unfortunately at age 3-4 my grasp of physics and gravity was not good and I plunged down the stairs into the back yard. Shaken up but not deterred, I continued the ride on the back patio. Again for full disclosure purposes, I do not remember this trike or that fall. I do remember the house and the two stoops, the back yard, and have some vague memories of living there, but very vague. It was not the first time I fell flat on my ass, nor would it be the last either.

Our dog Blackie

Also around this same time, we had a dog, a mutt named I believe “Blackie”. He was small, wiry, hyper and all black. Again, I do not remember him at all and most of the things I will tell you are from verbal history passed down through the family. Is it true? Who knows? Exaggerated? Probably, but it is still family history none the less. My father and grandmother always insisted that he was a very smart dog, you know, the kind that did tricks and such. I can remember seeing some old home movies where he would roll over or sit motionless on a kitchen chair as it was lofted over my dad’s and uncle’s head. But then the dog did a not so smart thing, he bit me. Again I don’t remember this at all. You might think I would have held this trauma memory forever but no, I’ve got nothing. Anyway, I understand that my parent’s reaction was quick and decisive, Blackie was sent to “the farm’ the next day. Years later my grandmother continued to say he went to “the farm”, a euphemism for “being put down” a euphemism for the ultimate punishment, but again no memories of this except for a few frames in some old home movies.

More stories in a later blog entry...

Just wasting some time…

So, I recently wrote about some websites that I had started to follow on a regular basis. Well I guess CollegeBoy didn’t think I was spending enough time on the internet so he gave me the name of a site he follows, mental floss. It is sort of the trivial pursuits page of the internet with a history twist. By this I mean that there are lists of things – sports, TV, science – but also historical facts and other oddities. There are almost countless sections of this web page, things like trivia, fact of the day, and quizzes, to name a few. The only problem that I have encountered with it so far is what CollegeBoy called the Wikipedia effect – you get to the site with a couple of minutes of downtime and then two hours later you are reading about the undersea geology off the coast of Madagascar. On mental floss you begin taking the daily quiz and two hours later you are looking at 9 child stars who failed in later life or 10 provocative facts about raising chickens.

I guess CollegeBoy figured I wasn’t wasting enough time…

Another website I found recently is one called historical tweets. Recently in a visit to a bookstore I saw a book written as historical figures tweeting about their accomplishments. There also was some famous writers tweeting their book ideas. All fictional of course. If you are a fan of or user of Twitter, that last sentence was unnecessary. If you are saying “huh??!?” then a quick explanation. Twitter is a social communication idea that has been around for a few years. You can write things and they are communicated to people who “follow” you. Wikipedia defines it as “a social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to the author's subscribers who are known as followers.” (Wow, I didn’t know that the eye of the Colossal Squid is the largest of any known animal, at up to 11 inches in diameter. Sorry, back from Wikipedia…) For example, everyone in my family is on Twitter and we use it to learn what CollegeBoy is up to, when MillieJupiter will be home or what mrsfabp thought about our sons most recent escapades. The only caveat is that you are limited to 140 characters per tweet. That means you must be concise, quick and know some shorthand LOL. (did you see what I did there??) Anyway, the idea that some historical figures might be tweeting is an absurd premise which makes it perfect for the internet. Imagine Darwin tweeting to colleagues “LOL, just realized turkeys look like dinosaurs! Wonder if this is important?” or Thomas Jefferson tweeting “just finished DOI, hope the rest of the gang likes it!” Now you get it? So check out this site if you have a bit of time on your hands…

ZOMG, I got to get a life!

Tl;dr; internet is a place to waste time…