Summer Varieties, Lichens and Mosses, and More!

Hello, everyone,

I hope you are all coping well with whatever level of madness is currently the status quo where you are. I have a few things to distract you from more difficult matters today.

First up, here's a neat bit of local television, of a sort that hasn't existed for a long, long time. It's a half-hour program that aired on WGAL-TV, in Lancaster, PA, in the summer of 1955. This is the final edition of "Summer Varieties", presumably near or at the end of that summer. The show featured local talent on organ, playing several solos, and also accompanying another local talent, a 15 year old female vocalist, one some other songs.

The tape was being recorded with an open microphone by someone, most likely in her home, and you can hear her curse at one point during a soft moment of the show. And I suspect I'm not alone in wishing the person taping this show had tuned in the next week for the return of show this program seems to have been replacing over the summer. "Stump Your Neighbor".

Download: Summer Varieties - WGAL-TV, Summer, 1955
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Next, here's a peculiar little item, which is short enough that I could have included it in my very short tapes series. But I find this one more interesting than many of those tapes, and actually filed it away after making an MP3 of it. It's labeled "Opening and Closing Music for Lichens and Mosses", so if you have any Lichens or Mosses outside your home, or in a frequently visited garden, perhaps you can play this music for them as you arrive and depart.


Download: Opening and Closing Music for Lichens and Mosses
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Here are the front and back of the tape box:

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For those of you who adore recordings of anonymous amateur bands sounding very amateurish while rehearsing medleys, do I have the tape for you!!!! Here 'tis!:

Download: Unknown High School Band - Rehearsing a Medley
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And finally, the moment you've been waiting for - this week's entry in the "Very Short Reels" series. In this case, it's a pair of nice ads for Dodge Pick-Up Trucks, sounding very much like they're from 1971, which they are.

Download: Two 1971 Dodge Truck Ads
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