Yes kids, that is Oprah right smack dab in the center of this, just underneath the pic of Morton Downey Jr. after he said he's been "attacked" Nazis and they painted a swastika backwards on his head. These two buttons have no relation to one another, other than they were created at the radio station when we had access to a button maker and a lot of magazines. I don't even remember what kind of buttons the radio station was making to give away.
As for Oprah, this was the late 80's. Daytime TV talk shows were taking over the TV. I don't think she was that popular, yet, but she had the reputation for the weight so I couldn't fit her head on a button. See? 80's humor. As for Morton Downey JR., I was a fan of his for a hot minute while he had that talk show with the big spittoon filled with cigarette butts. I even bought his book "Mort Mort Mort" for no apparent reason. After he was off he tried what is thought to be a publicity stunt that even got mentioned in a song by The Impotent Sea Snakes (or GWAR or Insane Clown Posse...I don't know, it's all blending together.) So, now that we got those two pieces of KAHMEDY out of the way, lets get to the rest...
Cavs! Yay! Of course, when I got this button, likely from the AM station I worked for, we were not the greatest team in the world. In fact, have we ever been? No sausage. Trivisonno. The big BOSE button I got from working at Nofeast Appliance. It was always an option to even wear name tags, so hell no, we wouldn't wear big advertising crap buttons. We would take them home, not wear them. Next to it is a novelty button. I used to buy buttons every year for the people I worked with. Back when they had a "Just Buttons" store with thousands of wacky buttons to choose from. Future dead store at a dead mall that would be a future lifestyle center. 80's fun. Then, jr. high school fun. No button maker here kids. I covered this in a previous post, but here was another handmade button I made when I was a team member of a jr. high school "academic challenge" sort of contest. We did totally suck as I didn't know nuffin. "What is the state of Arkansas called?" "Philadelphia?" Public schools. We just want you out of here. Then, if you wanted to get beat the hell up, you would be silly..no...stupid...no DUMBASS enough to wear the freshman button in your high school. Could be worse. Could wear your McDonalds work uniform on Halloween and say that you work at Burger King. HAHAHAHAHAHA!
Speaking of McDonalds, we were part of the great BURGER BALLOT of 1988. See, that was an election year, and those whiz ad peeps over at my on-again, off-again part time gig decided that it was the Big Mac Or The Quarter Pounder that needed the decision. La la la. I preferred the fish. Then, another radio station button making party button. It was part of the lore that our friend Trevor would portray on the air "The Lightning God" Der Blitzengott. He was the supreme leader over all living things and since he created currency, he had it to burn. Then comes a button I would wear on work aprons. This is Builders Square. YES. I might have been asked once at my tenure there, "I'd like to have this water heater installed by you guys..." SERVICE DESK!
Garfinkle The Cat! Yep. In the 80's, a big splash was made whenever a popular weekday comics character would be added to a newspaper's lineup. We were still a "two newspaper" town. We had The Cleveland Press and the Cleveland Plain Dealer. My step father preferred the Press so that's what we got, and when they added a rising star "Garfield The Cat", it was a major news to a drip like me that was getting a taste of early MTV and seeing boobs on the scrambled "Prevue" channel. I had posters, sheets, pencil toppers, and books. Garfinkle books. I thought I could save my allowance by taking every Garfield strip out of the newspaper and making my own book with them. I guess after two years, I did something else with my time and money, I MOVED ON. Whatever became of Lymon? I think Nermal was still around...
Then a little later for another hot minute I was a big fan of Ren and Stimpy. Again, I was cable free so I had to rely on my friend Bill to once again be my Ren and Stimpy dealer. "Psssst, hey fat TV salesman, want to see something funny?" I watched the first two seasons over and over but when they fired John K. (the creator of the show) , it went to all fart jokes and ceased being adult and funny. Come on! Frank Zappa as the POPE? Powdered Toast Man gets a chill and burns the Constitution to warm his ass? That was comedy :) Plus, there's my badge when I played the part of a cross walk guard when I was really young. I was pretty good at it too and I shouted "Walk It!" a lot. Only three injuries during my tenure...BOP! Now THAT'S COMEDY!
Finally, what every blog owner asks his/herself. There was the Cosi Toldeo button that I missed as well. I got it when they opened and then dropped a $300 minidisc 50 feet to the floor while doing a bit for WIOT. You see, I was up on the balanced bike on a high wire and well... Plus, it isn't easy being weird. Once again, ask yourself.........
-Ric
Boomer
Great, I like the buttons in this post even better than the first one.
Wow yeah, Garfield, I was a fan for a while, when he was in his peak and all around, doing TV specials. I had to get used to Odie, the Dog, having things happen to him because he was dumb though..
I made comic strip books too, not with Garfield, but Miles To Go, a comic with a Sheepdog named Miles by Phil Frank. It was always a lesser known comic, nothing you'd hear about like a Garfield, but I enjoyed reading the plain and sweet stories with Miles' friends. I made a scrapbook and dutifully cut them out of the paper every day and pasted them in, for a year? Maybe, something like that.
I started to save and make a book with Mother Goose And Grimm, the Dog, because I loved Grimm, always in the trash and being like Mother Goose's trampy, mischievous son. He was 'Doggy' in that way and I thought Grimm was cool. I didn't get too far on that book, but if I'd had another empty scrap book to use I probably would have. I just have some of the loose strips floating around in my folder time capsules of that time, favorite ones I kept.
I didn't do books thinking I'd save money, just did them to have something to read later.
Boomer