From the Class of '66 to The Twilight Zone

Rod Serling
Originally uploaded by Brite Lights photos.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Rod Serling, creator of The Twilight Zone, called Binghamton, New York his home town and legend has it drank in the bars not far from where I've been spending my summers.

He was quite short, but drank like a longshoreman and some people still remember him around the saloons bordering Cayuga Lake - or at least claim they do. Perhaps Ward Romer can do some research for me, he lives in the area.

So what twisted path led me to Rod Serling for this page?

Well, Pam Carr sent me one of those nostalgia links that is just fabulous. It's similar to some of the email lists/jokes that make their way around from time to time, but this has music, photos and lots of funny stuff to read. The music alone is worth logging on for.

And one of the photos flashing on a TV screen is the late Rod Serling himself.

Check out the link here:

Blast from the past

The Twilight Zone was one of my must-see TV shows in the 60s, right there with Star Trek and I Spy. In fact, that might encompass everything I watched. I think we only got three TV channels at my house, depending on how bad it was snowing. And is snowed a lot, I remember.

And on Saturday nights my grandmother (known to my friends as Shotgun, but that's a longer story) would insist on watching The Lawrence Welk Show, a sure way to drive all the teenagers out of the house, their hands covering their ears.

Today's song isn't exactly a Twilight Zone tune, but it's plenty weird. Rod would approve.

Love Potion Number Nine
The Searchers

(Written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller)

I took my troubles down to Madame Ruth
You know that gypsy with the gold-capped tooth
She's got a pad down on Thirty-Fourth and Vine
Sellin' little bottles of Love Potion Number Nine

I told her that I was a flop with chicks
I'd been this way since 1956
She looked at my palm and she made a magic sign
She said "What you need is Love Potion Number Nine"

She bent down and turned around and gave me a wink
She said "I'm gonna make it up right here in the sink"
It smelled like turpentine, it looked like India Ink*
I held my nose, I closed my eyes, I took a drink

I didn't know if it was day or night
I started kissin' everything in sight
But when I kissed a cop down on Thirty-Fourth and Vine
He broke my little bottle of Love Potion Number Nine

------ guitar solo ------

I held my nose, I closed my eyes, I took a drink

I didn't know if it was day or night
I started kissin' everything in sight
But when I kissed a cop down on Thirty-Fourth and Vine
He broke my little bottle of Love Potion Number Nine
Love Potion Number Nine
Love Potion Number Nine
Love Potion Number Nine