Two (or Three) Quick Stories (Okay, not so quick)

Story #1 President's Day Story:

I may be related to Abraham Lincoln. The mystery link is with a woman named Lydia. She married Samuel Stewart and I descend from this line. The question as to who her parents are remains an unsolved mystery. There is no written documentation as to who her parents were. Many researchers are pretty convinced that she is the daughter of Isaiah Harrison and Elizabeth Wright. Much too long of a story about that...But, if she is, in fact, a daughter of Isaiah Harrison, then Abraham Lincoln is my Half 3rd cousin, 6 times removed, as Abraham descends from the second wife of Isaiah. This line has been examined sixteen ways to Sunday as the Stewart line leads to descendants who were Mormon and believe me, these people have looked at every scrap of paper.

Story #2 - Missed Opportunity Story

Back in the 1970's and 1980's in Portland, the TV stations attempted some local programming that was kind of unique and different. (for that time period and for Portland) One was a variety/talk show thing that was taped and then shown in the afternoon. There was an actor who was in a lot of beer commercials that were shown locally and he was quite the hit for a while and they recruited him to be the host, a la Jay Leno type thing. I did find this on Wikipedia:

(Henry) Weinhard's created a unique and noteworthy advertising campaign in the late 1970s and 1980s to position its brand. The campaign featured a fictitious brand of beer called "Schludwiller" beer. A series of popular television commercials depicted Schludwiller as a beer brewed by the "California-Eastern Brewing Co." in California. In one of the ads, a "border patrolman" played by actor Dick Curtis asked Earle and Vern (the drivers of the Schludwiller Beer truck) "Well now?where you fellas going with all that beer?" Schludwiller came complete with its own motto in Latin: Quod Nescient Sibi Damno Non Erit (roughly: "What they don't know won't hurt them").

I had to see it in person and I went with a neighbor and they had an on going contest to go to Hawaii. We arrived and got in line and a gal was passing out the tickets --one side you keep with the number on it, the other half goes in the big huge bin. I was given two and I kept one and gave the other to my friend. That was the day that they were going to spin the big drum and there were hundreds of tickets in that thing, but by gosh the winning ticket was....my friend! We were stunned. I keep reliving that moment when I gave her one of the tickets. Could have gone the other way, but then...I've lived in Hawaii and she'd never been and she and her husband had a lovely week...so it was for the best.

Story #3, The Umbrella Story:

There was another show that came on called On The Spot. It was Portland's Channel 8's version of Jeopardy. When we left Manzanita and came back to Portland (ca 1986), I in my insanity, went to the station to apply to be on the show. I was accepted to go through the initial selection process which lasted for several hours. I don't even remember what we did, but I guess I wowed them with my fantastic, winning personality because I got a call back to be on the show. Here's the short version: Went to show, family in audience, they would film two shows that night, met the other contestants, makeup girl dusted us off (after I spent 6 hours getting ready!), went out on the stage, wondered what the hell am I doing here? and stood there as the introductions were made....and this is what they said. I was in the middle between two men. "Meet Joe Smith, a District Attorney from Hillsboro, OR, Susan Collins, a housewife from Portland, and Bob Jones, an assistant District Attorney from Portland", in that announcer voice. I thought...oh-my-god. So, came in third(not that housewives can't be smart, but these guys are quicker with the answers, having that lawyer training and all) and my prize was $100 worth of pepperoni/sausage from some place that made all of that stuff (my husband was thrilled), $100 gift certificate to a boutique in Beaverton, and the UMBRELLA! Everybody got the umbrella. And let me tell you that boutique thing was a rip-off because it was a small specialty shop and all their stuff was mostly way over $100 and I wasn't going to put $100 towards a $300 sweater. I found the cheapest on sale thing I could find, and it was sort of ugly. But by gosh I was going to take something home. After 25 years or so, still have the umbrella. The sweater and pepperoni are history, of course.

PS The show we recorded on videotape. I need to transfer it to a DVD. No matter how many times I've seen the show, I always end up in 3rd. Dang!