For this edition of Retro Ramblings, we’re gonna talk about what I refer to as the greatest holiday special of all time. You know, the one with the talking mice, ducks, and crickets. I’m talking about Mickey’s Christmas Carol, and the special place it holds in my memories.
Mickey’s Christmas Carol debuted on December 10, 1984, as a prime-time special on NBC. Maybe I actually watched it that year, but I can’t really say. I do know that if that wasn’t my first viewing, then it would have been the 1985 showing or 1986 at the latest. Checking the Google machine, I see that day was a Monday. I kind of distinctly remember watching it on a Sunday night. But maybe that’s just the eggnog talking.
None of those facts are really important to the story though. Let’s just all agree that I watched this near its infancy, and have watched it most years since then. It may be the oldest Christmas tradition I have. I’d have to think about that actually to confirm.
But let’s get into the meat and potatoes of why I love this special so darn much. The short answer is nostalgia. I have vivid and colorful memories of my whole family sitting down to watch this together. Most likely because I would have been in the 6-8-year-old range when I first saw it, so I’d say I was vocal about wanting to see it.
That nostalgia encompasses more than just the special though. It’s the whole experience. A fire going in the fireplace in the living room…me in my pajamas…my Dad cracking pecans and walnuts for us to snack on, followed by those Andes Toffee Thins that only come out at Christmas…maybe some snow falling outside…and Christmas themed commercials. All of it together is why I love Mickey’s Christmas Carol so much.
Besides all the warm fuzzy feelings I associate with it, the actual special itself is stupendous. And I’m talking about the entire special, not just the actual Mickey’s Christmas Carol feature. You’ve got to see the whole thing and breathe it all in. Donald’s Snow Fight, Pluto’s Christmas Tree, The Art of Skiing, and Mickey’s Christmas Carol. In later years, Disney and/or the networks would bastardize it by removing Goofy’s skiing feature and replacing it with looks at whatever new movie they had in the works. That was a horrible decision in my opinion. Give me Goofy falling off the ski lift any day over behind-the-scenes photos from The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
To me, they were all heartwarming tales. Donald and his nephews waging all-out war in their snowball fight, Chip & Dale causing havoc with Pluto by hiding in the Christmas tree, Goofy being his silly self on the ski slopes, and then the main event of Disney’s re-telling of the quintessential Christmas fictional classic.
I’ll give you the fact that the extremely shortened version of A Christmas Carol left out a lot of parts, but damn, the art and the rich colors kinda make you forget those details. And at the end when Scrooge finds the Christmas spirit and is bouncing all around town…it just gets me right in the feels.
And I mentioned earlier the commercials…so much Christmas goodness just oozes from those commercials. They came across as necessary additions to the whole thing. Especially that McDonald’s one with the kid who gets left behind while everyone else is skating on the pond. A night of watching Mickey’s Christmas Carol just isn’t complete if that commercial isn’t in there somewhere.
So I put Mickey’s Christmas Carol right at the top of my list when it comes to Christmas viewing. Hell, I put it in my top ten of all-time things I’ve ever watched on TV. And I saw the twin referee angle in the Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant match. That shit was crazy at the time. This is above THAT!
Unfortunately, you’ll no longer find a version of the entire thing like it was originally presented. And it’s usually the Art of Skiing skit that continues to get dropped every time a new release drops. I was really hoping that Disney+ would somehow piece the whole original concept together and air it, but no luck so far. Actually, I can’t even find Donald’s Snow Fight on the service yet either.
But if you look around the ‘net enough, you’ll find all the pieces and can watch it kind of how it was originally intended. Hell, you can even find that McDonald’s commercial to throw in there too.
And for you trivia buffs out there, check out this little tidbit: Mickey’s Christmas Carol was adapted as a daily comic strip and ran daily in November and December leading up to the special. If you look below, you can check out the first part of it. Enjoy!
In this very special edition of Retro Ramblings, I’m sharing a story from my childhood about a Christmas unlike any other I had known before it. It was a Christmas that changed my outlook on the holiday, and as you’ll read, recent events made that particular season all the more special.
Prelude
1983 – 5 years old…I have no real memories of Christmas that year other than my Grandfather passing away in the first week of December.
1984 – 6 years old…Show and Tell on the first day back to school after Christmas break. I took a little plastic trumpet, silver in color, to school…..and I was so proud of it. Several other kids teased me wondering if that was the best thing I had gotten for Christmas.
1985 – 7 years old…I had gotten a set of 12 toy cars for Christmas. Not Hot Wheels or Matchbox, but a generic version of them. There was a police car, a wrecker, some race cars, and various other cars and trucks. I wore them out that winter and spring I played with them so much.
1986 – 8 years old…HOLY COW!!! WHAT DID I DO FOR SANTA CLAUS TO BRING ME SO MUCH COOL STUFF?!?
By the fall of 1986, my thoughts were starting to turn to the coming Christmas season, and anticipation was starting to build for the holiday. The hope of children isn’t easily pushed to the side, but back in those days, I would be lying if I said that Christmas didn’t feel a little lacking.
Admittedly, I personally never felt slighted on Christmas morning. Whatever was under the tree from Santa Claus always left a lasting impression on me, even if I sometimes felt the little internal tug of wanting a little bit more. But when I would return to school, and see and hear about all the cool things my friends and others had gotten for Christmas, I would get a little jealous.
I was a good kid. I never caused trouble at school, and I definitely knew better than to cause trouble at home. I did my chores and I ate my vegetables, so why did I seem to be farther down Santa’s Nice list than some of the other kids? “Jonathon pushed Samantha down and hurt her arm”, “why did he get a huge Lego set and I only got a trumpet?”. “Zach punched me in the arm all year…hard.” “Why did he get a cool G.I. Joe HISS Tank and all the Dreadnoks figures and I ended up with a set of cars?” Such are the worrisome ponderings and questions of a kid who is not aware of all the comings and goings of adulthood.
What I didn’t know or understand back then, and actually I’m still learning and gaining a greater perspective on now, is that times were very tough for my family in the early eighties. My Dad was a self-employed businessman. He bought and sold new and used conveyor belts to coal mines, and as the coal business went, so did my family’s financial well-being.
1983 was a very tough year. My Grandfather’s alcohol addiction was in the last stages of consuming his life, and my Dad spent more time helping my Grandmother, both emotionally AND financially, than he did with the business. The first week of December, my Grandfather passed away. Christmas was lean due to dealing with the emotional struggles of losing someone close, and the fact that so much time had been spent away from the business.
1984 came along, and so did the large-scale United Mine Workers of America strike in West Virginia…..primarily against the A.T. Massey Coal Companies and subsidiaries. West Virginia was always the breadbasket of my Dad’s business. When strikes occurred, it crippled his business and our financial well-being for quite some time, and unfortunately, this strike would not be over quickly.
1985 came, and the strike was still on. It wasn’t resolved until late in the year. Too late for lost income to be made up. Several straight years of lean and underwhelming visits from Santa Claus were wearing on my faith in the man.
But then came 1986. The strike had been resolved, and with the mines back in full-time operation, orders poured in from all sides. It was a VERY good year. Not so coincidentally, Santa seemed to fill his sleigh completely just for my family. I guess he was making up for lost time.
That year, I can vividly remember more cakes and candies and goodies being around than any other. While I was pleased by gifts from previous Christmas days, I was totally blown away on that Christmas morning in 1986! The Cobra Terror Drome! The G.I. Joe Tomahawk Helicopter! Tomax & Zamot 2 pack! Grizzlor figure! The Hot Wheels Snake Mountain Challenge Race Track Set! Tonka Steel Monsters Truck! A huge Construx set! A G.I. Joe VHS Tape! Holy Cow!!!
It was like Santa Claus was issuing a huge “I’m sorry” for the previous couple of years, and making it up all in one day. And it wasn’t just me. My brother got a see-thru V8 engine kit, and some other cool stuff. My Mom got our family’s first microwave, a new bed coat, new shoes, a new Aigner purse, and a new Aigner leather coat.
I had always believed in Santa Claus, but 1986 was the year I fully got behind the larger-than-life man. He had come through in a big way and left memories of what was my favorite Christmas season for years….pretty much up until I had kids of my own. I went to school strutting with excitement in anticipation of telling all of my friends what I had gotten for Christmas. I was simply overjoyed.
The years rolled by, and one Christmas after another was really good, but none reached the heights of triumph that 1986 had. It really wasn’t until my later teen years that I learned and thought I finally understood why 1986 had been so magical. The stories I recounted at the beginning of this article came up in conversation every so often. How the early eighties were a really tight time for my family with the business swings and family issues and all. In 1986, my Dad’s business hit its zenith, and he was finally able to give his family the Christmas he had wanted to through those prior years.
Well, that’s it. I was 19 years old, and I had heard the tales and understood why those early Christmas mornings were less than stellar. End of story, have a Merry Christmas.
See, this is how the story has been left and told for the last 16 years of my life. I learned the truth, thought it was cool that when my Dad finally had the chance, he went overboard on us for Christmas, but for all these years, there are other details that he had left out that I didn’t learn until just 3 months ago. Bear with me while I finish this tale.
Where I currently work, there are several people from throughout the community that also ply their trade here. One of the fellows whom I’ll call James so as to keep his identity private, served with my Dad in those early 80’s years in the local Volunteer Fire Department. James and I would sit around during break periods and talk about those old days. Somehow one evening, the conversation turned to Christmas and other holidays. I recounted an abbreviated version of the events above and explained to James how my Dad had finally had a good year and turned into Santa Claus overnight and threw a big Christmas in ’86. James then proceeded to enlighten me to some details I had never been privy to before.
He said that “Santa” was a heck of a man, and just because I may not have gotten a lot of toys and such those years, doesn’t mean that there wasn’t much to go around, it just meant that there were more gifts being given to some folks who maybe needed it a little more than I did.
He piqued my interest and we continued talking and he opened my eyes to so much about those years. He reminded me of the Christmas parties that the Fire Department would host every year. He reminded me that every kid there got a new toy. He said that in those years when the fundraising for the party came in below what was needed, it was my Dad who donated the rest to make sure that every needy child in town got something there and went home happy.
He told me that when the town’s Christmas decorations that were hung from the light poles in town fell apart and needed to be replaced before the holiday season, it was my Dad who went and got a loan against his business to buy them so the town would still have decorations up for the Christmas season, not just that year, but for years to come.
And without any hesitation or embarrassment whatsoever, he told me that there was a year in there that he (James) had had a very rough year financially, and was in a real bind coming up on the holidays. My Dad could sense it, and went to James and asked him if he had the money to give his kids a nice Christmas. James told him that, no, probably not. He said my Dad gave him money to buy his three kids presents. He also bought him a ham and some other food for a Christmas dinner, and that my Dad and my uncle cut and delivered him two loads of firewood to see that he got through the season with heat for his family. He told a few other stories in the same vein of my Dad helping people through the holidays.
I need to tell you right now, I shed a tear listening to James tell me all of these things. For those years as a kid, I may have been selfish and wished for more than I had gotten. As I grew older, I thought I learned the truth and thought my Dad was really cool for making that year of ’86 extra special. But now, all these years later, I learned the rest of the story. I learned that even though I doubted the validity of Santa Claus being real, he IS most definitely alive and well. I learned that the real Santa is a hard-working man who wants the best for his family, but he is also a caring and kind man to everyone else too. He is a humble man, as he never felt the need to talk about all these things he did for people. And I’m sure that the spirit of Santa Claus lives in many more men than just my own Dad.
Through these experiences, he has taught me to care for others, and he has taught me love. Heck, all the things I mentioned in the article I wrote last Christmas about all the great things my Dad gave us each year were inspired by the Christmas of ’86, and at the time of writing, I had no idea just how far-reaching his Christmas spirit carried.
It may have taken 37 years now to learn the lesson to this degree, but I go into this coming Christmas season with a newfound outlook and a new attitude. I hope you get something from this story to take with you, and I hope THIS is the most wonderful and magical Christmas of your years.
The McDonald’s McDLT gets mentioned on its fair share of fondly remembered food listsand for good reason. Of all the great, and horrible, things to ever grace the menu of McDonald’s, the McDLT was one of the best items they created. I was a fan during its all-to-brief run in the ’80s, and it’s the subject of this edition of Retro Ramblings.
McDonald’s McD.L.T. was a burger similar in size to Burger King’s Whopper sandwich and featured mostly the same ingredients. A quarter-pound beef patty, lettuce, tomato, mayo, cheese, pickles, and ketchup on a toasted sesame seed bun. The beauty of the McDLT though was its packaging. It came in one of McDonald’s signature styrofoam containers. But this one was slightly different from all the rest, as it featured two separate compartments instead of one.
On one side, the bottom bun and burger patty rested, while on the other were the rest of the toppings and the top bun. This allowed the hot parts to remain separate from the cold parts until you were ready to put it together and eat. And that was the brilliance of it all. A fresh-tasting McDLT when the hot patty met the cold toppings. What I could never figure out though, was why the slice of cheese was included on the cold side. To me, it would have made much more sense to put it on top of the patty on the hot side so it could get all melty. But apparently, I’m not a genius like the burger builders at McDonald’s.
When I first discovered it as a kid, I was at the age where I was getting a little old for Happy Meals and found the McDLT to be a perfectly acceptable replacement for it. I’m guessing it was basically the novelty of it that turned me on to it, but it was a great burger in its own right so that kept me coming back for more.
As a side note, McDonald’s lost a little luster to me with the fall of those original foam containers. Each container was a different color to represent what was held inside, and even the McNuggets had a little compartment built-in to hold the sauce cup. I understand the environmental impact and agree with the decision to stop using them, but dang, they looked cool, and figure prominently in my memories of McDonald’s and childhood in general.
The timing of the fall of the McDLT kind of lines up perfectly with my ascent to a teenager from childhood. Maybe that’s why it holds such a special place in my memories, and why I miss it so damn much.
For this edition of Retro Ramblings, we’re jumping in the time machine to revisit another junk food lost love of mine. We’re going to take a look at one of the more interesting breakfast foods of the late ’80s and early ’90s…Oatmeal Swirlers. Do you remember this? It seems like the split between people who remember it, and those who don’t is 50/50. If you remember it, enjoy this trip down memory lane. If you don’t remember it, get ready for a quick education.
I was very fortunate that my Mom didn’t work when I was growing up. My Dad made a good living and she was able to stay at home and raise us kids for the most part. At two different points, she took jobs and only worked for 6 weeks at each, so for 99% of my childhood, she was always home. This meant that every morning before school, she was up early and made a home-cooked breakfast for the family. Most days that consisted of eggs and toast, or biscuits and gravy, and sometimes her home-cooked oatmeal.
On the rare occasion when she or one of us had something going on early, she would turn to something quick like frozen pancakes or waffles, or cereal. My favorite of the quick breakfast options however was instant oatmeal. I loved Quaker Maple Brown Sugar Instant Oatmeal. It was a staple of my breakfast diet then, and it still is now. No other instant oatmeal could touch it in my eyes. That is until I first saw a commercial for General Mills’ Oatmeal Swirlers.
It was instant oatmeal that came with a squeeze pack of what I guess would be best described as jelly. You could squeeze out smiley faces, or words, or even play tic tac toe with the pack. It was awesome. When this stuff hit the market it took instant oatmeal to a whole new level.
While I don’t even faintly remember how it tasted, I do remember how much fun breakfast was on those mornings. I can remember almost being excited about going to bed on those nights when I knew that Oatmeal Swirlers was going to be for breakfast the next day. Sadly, like so many other favorite foods of my youth, this one bit the dust far too early. For a long time after it vanished from the shelves, I missed it terribly. Time went on and other breakfast novelties came along to take its place, but it certainly left its mark on me to this day I wish I could pick up another box of this stuff and share it with the kiddos.
Now, some people will tell you that you can duplicate the magic yourself using various kinds of oatmeal and jellies. But I disagree. The magic was how it all came together. The low-quality oatmeal, the over-sweet “jelly” in its plastic pouch, and the simple, yet beautiful design of the box. You can’t replicate shit like that. I’m not even going to try.
In the late ’80s, we were drowning in a sea of gum choices as kids. In those days, gum still came in packs of trading cards, it came all shredded in a pouch meant to resemble chewing tobacco, heck….it even came in a round stick wrapped in paper to mimic cigarettes!
But a new fad hit the shelves when bubble gum with liquid centers hit the market. I don’t recall what the first gum was to showcase the new feature, but I DO remember the first one to make a “splash”, and it was Dr. Pepper gum. It was a simple concept. It was gum that tasted like Dr. Pepper, with a liquid center that also tasted like Dr. Pepper. What a concept.
As a kid in those days, one of the few things your life revolved around was soda and all of a sudden we had a gum that tasted like soda! Life couldn’t get much better. For those of you who have read my previous articles, you’ll know that my parents rarely felt the need to buy into gimmicks or fads, but when it came to this gum, they were both happy to pay for a pack of it whenever I would throw it up on the checkout counter.
We all know the story of this game. Several different odd-shaped blocks fall from the top of the board, and you had to rotate them, move them left or right to get them to drop into position to complete a line and make it go away. If you weren’t quick enough or smart enough to do that on a consistent basis, your board would be full and your game would be over. My first experience with the game came with the launch of the Game Boy. A local department store had the Game Boy demo set up in their electronics department. Every weekend while my mother would do her shopping, I killed time playing Tetris on the demo machine. It wasn’t long until I had enough money saved up to buy the game for the NES, and then a much bigger, and full-color version of the game was mine.
It was so simple of a game, even an adult could play it too! And that’s exactly what happened at my house, and why this game is so high up the list. My father never would play video games. He didn’t even like to sit and watch me play a game. So when he saw how easy Tetris was, he wanted to give it a try. For months afterward, we would play it together, seeing who could get the highest score and the most completed lines. He would even be the one most times to suggest us playing. Those times spent with my Dad, doing something that I loved are ones that I’ll never forget, and Tetris gets a high spot on my all-time list because of it.
Morning Funnies Cereal was produced by Ralston Cereals in 1988 & 1989. It was a super sweet cereal, bright in color and shaped like smiley faces. The taste and shape weren’t the hooks for this cereal though…..the box was. I know what you’re thinking. How could a box be better than what was inside? Well, because the box featured comic strips on the front and back panels! In addition, the back of the box featured a full-size flap that opened up and featured even more comics on the inside! It was nirvana for comic strip lovers. The company actually won an award in 1988 for “innovative packaging” for the fifth-panel design.
The comics featured were Dennis the Menace, Beetle Bailey, Hagar the Horrible, Hi and Lois, Family Circus, Luann, Marvin, Funky Winkerbean, and What A Guy!. Not a bad lineup, but still it left something to be desired when Garfield, Peanuts, and The Far Side were all the rage at the point this cereal was on the market.
The cereal was canceled in 1989 due to poor sales…or so we’re supposed to believe. I call that a conspiracy theory. As good as this stuff was, there’s no way it had poor sales. The ultra sweetness of the cereal turned off parents, and the lack of fresh cartoons turned off the kids.
From my own experiences, I remember seeing the commercials for the cereal and feeling that I just had to have it. For one thing, it was part of my morning ritual to read the funny pages from the newspaper while I ate breakfast every morning, so this cereal seemed right up my alley.
My mom bought just one box. She rarely went for gimmicky cereal like this but caved under my constant pressure. Wait a minute. Was I one of the kids who were responsible for those “poor sales”? No, I’m going to plead innocence here. That was my mom’s doing. Anyway, I don’t remember what the cereal tasted like, but I do remember enjoying reading those comics on the box…..at least for the first two or three mornings. After that, the novelty faded and I was back to reading fresh daily comics from the newspaper. I remember looking at the comics on the boxes at the grocery store, and they were all the same. Maybe if they had different strips on different boxes in the same case, it could have led to more sales. As it were, you could grow very tired of seeing the same strip every morning.
It seemed like a good idea at the time but quickly fizzled in execution. However, I would love to see it back on the shelves at the local grocer just to take one more chance on it.
The commercial was a lot of fun too with all the comic characters featured in one place. Give it a watch and then let me know if you remember and miss this cereal too.
