Vegetable Soup
Andrew Borelli sent this to me as a regular e-mail, but the writing was so memorable that I asked him if I could use it as a post, and he graciously consented. So here it is--and you definitely need to check out the link first.See the following link, then I'll tell you a funny (or perhaps not so funny) story.
Vegetable Soup Opening Theme.
Done? Okay, I remember watching this show religiously on PBS as a kid. Loved it to death. Time marched on.
Cut to 1998. I am sitting in a hotel room in Atlantic City in the aftermath of a bachelor party gone horribly wrong. I am smoking a cigarette. It is the quiet of the early morning and I am pondering the wrongness of the evening, which involved prostitution, gambling, a mysterious case of pink eye, and gyro sandwiches. The groom is missing. Just missing. The sun is starting to rise over the Atlantic.
Now, Atlantic City is a poor city. The gambling resorts are like a separate country. Leave the boardwalk and you're in Baghdad. (Funny how times change... 20 years ago I would have said Beirut.) I turn on the TV. You know how most hotel TV sucks, and this is not the world's greatest hotel.
I turn on the TV, and the only station running is the local PBS affiliate. And guess what show comes on? You got it. I almost fell off the couch. I hadn't seen it in 15+ years.
Even though I was very young then, the 70's fill me with warm fuzzy feelings. When I drift back to the 70's I think of walking with my mother under the el on New Utrecht Avenue (the street you see in the opening credits on Welcome Back Kotter), of Italian pastry shops, and moldy, dusty comic book stores. It makes me want to play Space Invaders, listen to Planet Caravan, and break out my yellowing collection of Spiderman and Hulk and Batman comic books purchased at the time for 40 cents.
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