The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963, Chapter 8

Kenny mentions "a new hood thing." He's talking about the hood ornament that's on the front of a car, right in the middle. They used to be pretty fancy. Here's a collection of what Plymouth hood ornaments looked like when the Brown Bomber was made in 1948. It's a little hard to see the wings. Maybe one wing has already been "scientifically and mathmatically" removed.

Not many men use a shaving brush anymore, let alone twice before shaving like Kenny's dad, but this is what Dad would have used to apply his shaving soap. Next to it is a bottle of Old Spice after shave. This bottle was the style used in 1963.

  

Kenny's dad was gone a pretty long time if he missed all shows Kenny watched. He mentions Felix the Cat, Soupy Sales, Beany and Cecil, The Rae Deane Show, and Betty Boop. Then he says the worst cartoon ever made was Clutch Cargo. Here's a clip. You decide if Kenny is right.

This one was actually mentioned at the very end of chapter 7. It says "Dad brought home the TT AB-700 in the Brown Bomber." The TrueTone AB-700 would have been similar to this item.

So, who knows how records play music? Let's work backward. Now songs are digital downloads. Before that there were CDs. Continuing backward in music technology, there were cassette tapes, 8-track tapes, and then these relics called records. A needle rested on a record, the record spun slowly, and gravity held the needle in place. The needle sensed bumps and marks in the grooves of the record and transferred those bumps to sound. However, this could happen, especially if the player was bumped. Hmmm . . . why might a car not be the best place for a record player?

Kenny jokes about Walter Cronkite talking about something on the news. In the days before instant information via the Internet, 24 hour news channels, and Twitter, most Americans got their news from two places. Newspapers and the evening news. Walter Cronkite was the nightly news anchor for the CBS evening news from 1962-1981.

Momma's song:

Kenny's song: