This is what my sister Pammy would say when we were kids when she fake snored. I know, funny right? No idea why she needed to fake snore but she would say this softly, very fast and repeat 2-3 times. And then I am sure we would laugh and laugh. With various recent family gatherings we have been reminiscing a lot and embracing how weird and goofy we were (are). I think that translates into adulthood as creativity but wow it’s hard to hold on to! Although revisiting the secret language of kids might help name a future new drug.
I want to find a way to channel that childhood free-thinking into imagination, innovation and problem solving at work. In marketing we always have to find new ways to say the same thing over and over and still manage to create interest or excitement. Creativity isn’t as obvious with IT or Web. I look at technology problems like a Sudoko puzzle. Sometimes you have to be creative with how the logic works between systems, users and all the ‘what ifs.’
I am laughing as I remember some of the weirdest, funniest things we did as kids. For starters we never fought. Never. Ok, maybe twice…in 48 years. People thought we were weird because of how well we got along. We used to get in trouble for laughing too much after my dad had gone to bed. Here are a few examples of what we might have been doing.
$10,000 Pyramid
We loved to play $10,000 Pyramid home version. Combine that with a tape recorder and you will be laughing in minutes. I was probably in sixth grade, Pammy was around third. I was giving the clues.
Me: That thing like a barber shop quartet where everyone sings in a different key
Pammy: Blank stare. No idea
Me: Ok, what’s the last name of that family we always see at the New Years day party? The son’s name is Paulie?
Pammy: Hoyman’s?
Me: Yes! Now what’s that creamy, sweet stuff you put on a cake?
Pammy: Icing?
Me: Yah! Now, put the two together!
Pammy: Hoyman-icing? What’s Hoyman-icing?
Now I am laughing so hard I am crying. One, because Pammy sounds like Mike Meyers as the host of coffee talk and a loving Jewish mother and two, if she can’t get harmonizing off the barber shop quartet clue plus hoyman-icing we are never getting there! So we play back the recording and laugh some more!
Sometimes at work I feel like we are trying to explain harmonizing to the field, they are hearing hoyman-icing and still not getting it! Successful marketing and communications are trickier than you might think but I would love to have Dick Clark or Donny Osmond hosting our brainstorm sessions!
Designer shoes
Like every kid of the 70’s I was the lucky recipient of the potholder loom kit one birthday. I think my mom still has one of those old potholders she received for mother's day and I was surprised to see in a Google search they still exist!
Pammy and I would trace our feet on the cardboard back cover of an old notebook and cut them out. Then we would weave the looms through our toes, around our feet, ankles and the cardboard and make our designer loom shoes. We both hated feet so we would laugh our butts off as we put ours through the contortions of these odd, colorful shoes. Actually today they resemble some of the Gladiator sandals that are so popular! I guess we were ahead of the times.
Boogie Shoes
When we took our family vacations my mom would pack these little play suitcases with crayons, coloring books, candy and toys for the drive. We weren’t allowed to open them until we were on the highway. It was highly likely it was 4 am and we were still in our nightgowns.
One year she gave us Charlie’s Angels dolls. Since I was obsessed with Jacklyn Smith I got the Kelly Garrett doll. I think Pammy got Sabrina. They were wearing polyester jump suits and plastic knee-high boots. We promptly put the boots on our fingers and finger-danced the whole way to Florida.
We both took dancing lessons and there was one tap dance to KC and the Sunshine Band’s Boogie Shoes that we repeated over and over and over with the boots on our fingers. Flap ball change, flap ball change, shuffle hop step, shuffle hop step….Every time I hear that song my fingers start dancing! And yes it was a tap dance to a disco song. It was the 70’s.
I bet the ROI we got on those cheap plastic boots would beat an iPad! I wonder how family road trip vacations have changed with each kid having their own personal device and head phones. Is getting to a new level in Candy Crush as memorable as the Charlie’s Angel doll finger dance to Boogie Shoes? I don't think so!
