Fred Wolfie's Journal

Today I had some time on my own, so I went out to see the Huntington Elementary School's annual Memorial Day parade, which happened to be scheduled for this very day! The good thing is that this school is down the road from my house, which makes it very convenient for me.
The reason for the parade being an annual tradition, the Huntington Elementary is the oldest elementary school in Brockton, still in use! It was built in 1896, expanded and added onto in 1914, then renovated in 1978 (in the process, their auditorium was transformed into a gymnasium with a stage!) I didn't go to the Huntington school, but I've had a few summer camps there as a kid, so I am familiar with the building and its history.
And when I got to the school to see if anyone I knew was there before the parade started, who should I run into but a certain kangaroo...


Yep, good old K-O was out for the parade too!




The little ones loved K-O, naturally. It brought back memories of me working for the Rox last year.


One of Brockton's old fire trucks passes through the parade (hook and ladder engine 2.) I had my iPod Nano on to help dampen the sound the sirens (as these fire trucks come with two sirens, not one!) Ironically, I was playing a G.I. Joe PSA about fire safety as it was passing by!


Classic cars! I'm sure quite a few of you know I can't get enough of them ;)


Nice vintage yellow taxi cab from 1965!


Now THAT'S what I call a Chevy!


The nearby South Middle School also marches in the Huntington's parade every year (they are next door to the Huntington school, and they help out with them a lot.) Their team is the Dragons, so they have a Chinese-style dragon mascot for these sort of events!


Bands from two schools I DID go to: the Davis K-8 and East Middle Schools (but back then, it was Davis Elementary and East Junior High.) The Davis school's team is the Bulldogs, and East's team is the Eagles.


K-O in the parade!


After the parade, back at the school (the section of the building with those big white gymnasium windows was originally the auditorium prior to its 1978 renovation.) As I left, K-O was heading into the school for their after-parade assembly.

Now, a reason why I am posting this pics is because I will be working for the Brockton Rox again this year, in their concession department like last year. The season starts in two weeks, so meeting K-O here was sort of to get me pumped up. I now DEFINITELY can't wait for the season to start again!

Recently when I was doing a completely random Google search, I came across an incident that occurred almost thirty years ago that caught my interest. But I must warn you, it's not going to be pretty. It's actually rather sad, too.

It happened on Halloween night, 1984, in Berryessa California. Back story: the defendant/criminal William Michael Dennis had gone through a troubled life over the years. He divorced his wife due to her having affairs shortly after their first son was born. He felt even more vengeful on her after their son drowned in a swimming pool incident when he was in the care of her and the stepfather. An attempt to sue them in 1982 didn't go so well. So, two years later, Halloween night, when everyone was out trick-or-treating and in costume, Dennis had donned an appropriate disguise: dark mechanic coveralls, rubber "werewolf" gloves and a full rubber "cartoonish" wolf mask. (I'm sure you can tell THAT is what caught my interest ;) )  Witnesses have reported seeing the wolf walking toward a pedestrian overpass connecting his neighborhood to his ex-wife's. And some others reported seeing the wolf staring at the victim's house from across the road for some time. When the ex-wife's new husband left to get some beer, he left his wife and their young daughter home alone (the victim was eight months pregnant at the time, and they had initially just come home from taking the daughter trick-or-treating.)
Sure enough, there was eventually a knock at the door. Thinking it may have been trick-or-treaters, the victim answered the door to find the wolf, who growled "You killed my boy." The victim recognized the voice of the man behind the mask, and turned her back on him. "I'm going to kill you," he then said, and entered while the victim tried ordering him to get out. I will spare you the gruesome details on how the wolf slaughtered the woman with a machete knife, the fetus killed and expelled in the process, the daughter hiding from the scene, and then Dennis doffing the wolf mask as he left the house, leaving the mask on the porch.
Among arriving home, the victim's husband noticed her barely breathing and badly mangled, and tried to help, but is falsely arrested when trying to see his wife due to the smell of alcohol on him. He was then released, and shortly after, William Michael Dennis was arrested, taken into custody, and found guilty of the murder. He is currently still on death row (thank goodness!)

Here is a photo of the wolf mask that the killer had worn at the murder. The scan comes from an old Don Post Studios catalog from the mid-1970s:

It was made by Don Post Studios, and was discontinued in 1978. I actually wouldn't mind having a mask like that, but it's probably impossible to find nowadays. Besides, I already have a wolf mask manufactured by Don Post Studios. And I'm sure you can guess which one it is...


Yup! Good ol' Zeke M. Wolf  ;)

The parts of the report about the wolf in mechanic coveralls crossing the overpass and staring at the victim's house are giving me ideas for a video or a photoshoot when Halloween rolls around. Nothing murder related, of course, but something more fun. Hmm...

Yeah, as unnerving/scary it is, I was doing another YouTube search of anything interesting related to CONELRAD/Cold War-era Civil Defense. The following recording was to be used in radio station tests of the Emergency Broadcast System (now the Emergency Alert System), from cira 1979. It was made to be funny, with music done in "whole tone" (instead of major or minor), complete with country fiddle, but instead it's actually kind of scary, knowing it was to be used for something warning you of danger. You would add the test tone at the proper area, and during an instrumental part speak the usual test script ("If this had been an actual emergency, you would have been instructed to tune to a certain station for important information...") and then use it for the real tests (note the woman ending it with "Did you pass?" *rolls eyes*)
If this DID get used, I wonder if there was an announcer muttering under his breath near the end of the instrumental part "They should get rid of this jingle, it's not supposed to be upbeat and fun!"

The FCC banned these kind of Emergency Broadcast System tests shortly after, going back to the kind we are familiar with today.
I can't imagine what would happen if they did versions of these recordings warning us of tornadoes, severe thunderstorms or flash flood warnings, or even worse (ulp) a nuclear strike against the United States? (Hey, the Cold War was still kind of going on during the late 1970s!)

"And that concludes this post..." *country fiddle* "...on the EMERGENCY BROADCAST SYSTEEEEEEM!!!"
"Didja wet your pants?"

I just learned from my friend rapidtrabbit about the passing of one of my favorite childhood illustrator/authors, Maurice Sendak, famous for creating "Where the Wild Things Are" and "Little Bear," and the "Really Rosie" special and stories (I actually have a compact cassette of the soundtrack, performed by Carole King, and I have some of the songs on my iPod as well!)

I couldn't help but notice the boys in many of Sendak's works all looked nearly identical, especially Max, Pierre and the boy from "Chicken Soup with Rice" (named Chicken Soup in the Really Rosie story.)

Yes, what I'm talking about was the infamous Hindenburg disaster that occurred on May 6, 1937:

This needs pretty much no introduction; the German hydrogen-filled zeppelin exploded and crashed in a terrible accident during a landing attempt in Lakehurst, New Jersey. 36 people were killed in the disaster (most of them crew members, and this was actually a minority compared to the 97 people aboard the ship.) It was speculated a while back that the most likely cause was due to one of the hydrogen gas tanks leaking due to a wide turn among trying to land, which was ignited due to a static electricity spark. It's also famous for it's live and on-the-spot media coverage, which was rare back in the 1930s (complete with the radio announcer sobbing "Oh the humanity and all the passengers!")
In a little over 30 seconds, the closing of a peaceful zeppelin voyage had transformed into a fiery nightmare. Some people even speculated at first that it was intentional sabotage by terrorists! There was even a whole episode of National Geographic's "Seconds From Disaster" about it, and many cartoons have loved parodying it; almost any time a zeppelin or blimp is seen, it usually winds up crashing or blowing up in a similar manner, such as on the Simpsons, CatDog, even on Pokemon!

I can't believe I'm one of the first people on LiveJournal to observe this! *removes old beat-up top hat in a moment of silence*

A while back, I brought out my old "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" DVD from 1999. I mean old because it's got NO special features, and is pretty much just a DVD version of the 1990s laserdisc release of the movie, complete with identical cover artwork (I REALLY need to upgrade to the newer Roger Rabbit 2-disc DVD edition from a while back.) DVD editions aside, it's still one of my all-time favorite movies. And why not? It's got loads of classic cartoon characters (from Disney, Warner Bros. Animation, MGM, Max Fleischer, even Walter Lantz!), lampshading all the usual old cartoon conventions, the fantastic blending of animation with live action, great performances by Bob Hoskins and the eerie Christopher Lloyd, a fantastic music score by Alan Silvestri, and mind-blowing animation and special effects (and this was before CGI became more mainstream!) You could say it sparked an interest in theatrical animation again (along with the Disney renaissance that started up shortly after with movies like "The Little Mermaid" and "Beauty and the Beast.")

In the original script, they were going to have the Tex Avery wolf ogling over Jessica Rabbit (that was the one thing missing from the final product with the ever-sexy Jessica Rabbit's sultry musical performance), but was dropped, probably due to time/production constraints. There is only one wolf in the final product, and I'm sure you can guess who it is...



Yep, our old friend Zeke Wolf (it makes sense, as Disney was co-producing this under their Touchstone banner, so of course Disney would opt to use their own Big Bad Wolf!) Here he's making a cameo in Toontown, hiding from one of those old-fashioned traffic lights Tex Avery loved using.


At the end after the mystery had been solved and all the 'toons come out into the ACME factory, there's some sheep standing there, but wait, why does the sheep suddenly have a zipper? (Yes, that is Marvin the Martian next to him, even though the film takes place in 1947, which was one year before the then-unnamed Martian made his debut in the Looney Tunes cartoons; then again, we also have cameos by the Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote, Sam sheepdog, the Mary Poppins penguins and Tinkerbell, but let's not be nitpicky right now...)



*ZZZZIP* Yep, it's the Big Bad Wolf in disguise! (Usually he doesn't wear convincing/realistic costumes and disguises like that, he often opts for the cheesier stuff, but when I'M playing the wolf, he has a more better taste in disguises ;) )
His one solitary line "Or a SHEEP!" is provided by the late Tony Pope, famous for voicing the original popular Furby from Tiger Electronics in the late 1990s:



A few other associated shots of our favorite Disney wolf in the crowd:




Felt like sharing :)

Let's face it; Mickey Mouse is one of the most easily-recognizable child icons. And you're going to dress as him for a public appearance or other childrens' event. You have a few options, but there are some you should avoid...


An official store-bought costume. Like THAT'S going to fool the kids. "Mickey" does not have his large shoes, white gloves, and a HUMAN head. Kids will instantly holler "That's not Mickey Mouse!" "That's an impostor!"
You could try using black and white makeup, and while it may be a creative idea, it probably wouldn't go over well (kids would probably find him scary-looking.)


Believe it or not, those are the actual Mickey and Minnie costumes they used at Disneyland in the 1950s! I'd be surprised if kids were fooled by that. Sure, it completely covers the body, but it doesn't look much like Mickey. It looks more like a six-foot ****ing rat! (At least, that's what Robin Williams would say!)


This was from some event in the UK from maybe 10 years ago. Again, Mickey is completely covered in costume, you have a pretty good Mickey head and the right kind of gloves, but there are still a few flaws. Mickey should at least have his distinct buttons on his pants. The head is just a rubber Halloween mask that was made back in the 1940s or/to the 1960s (I have one myself, it's REALLY tight), and due to the tight fit it makes sort of an odd proportion, along with the bottom of Mickey's neck sticking out. It should be tucked into the shirt (many rubber masks, except for my Big Bad Wolf mask, have a neck like that to hide under your clothes in order to give a more realistic effect.)


Good for nostalgia, but not for public appearances in the new millennium (it's still SORT of new, even if we're only twelve years into it.)

Found these pics on another blog. It's from a Little Golden Book from 1959, featuring one of the very first bits of Chipmunks merchandise/memorabilia, only two years before "The Alvin Show" prime-time animated series debuted on CBS, and well before the Chipmunks began doing their own covers of pop songs, and WAY before the live-action/CGI rip-off movies (I STILL think Bob Saget should've played Dave Seville!)
And who illustrated it?

Richard Scarry!
Yes, the same illustrator that brought us Huckle Cat, Lowly Worm, Mr. Frumble, Mr. Fix-It, and the rest of the Busytown gang. Seeing as he was gaining more popularity in the 1950s with his earlier Golden books (like "The Bunny Book" or "Good Night Little Bear,") it seemed logical for him to illustrate Alvin, Simon and Theodore for this book. As you can see, they look more like how the Chipmunks were depicted on the early album covers (note that Theodore isn't chubby yet, and Simon isn't even wearing his distinct coke-bottle glasses!) and are drawn in the more lush art style Richard Scarry typically used in the 1950s and early 1960s, compared to how we usually think of his artwork:

(After his unfortunate passing in 1994, his son Huck Scarry took over the Busytown stories and franchise.)


David Seville isn't in it, but they have these Chipmunks' singing teacher, Mr. Owl (reminds me of Tex Avery's "I Love to Singa" cartoon) and he takes on the duties of shouting "ALVIN!" (which has always been Dave's trademark.)
Also, in their Christmas song, it's THEODORE that wants the hula hoop, not Alvin (I guess the writer of this book mixed up the song in some way), because it's almost always Alvin that wanted the hula hoop (and he got his hula hoop in the animated version of the Chipmunk Song from 1961, while Simon and Theodore got their planes.)

Just felt like sharing :)

It was over a month ago, but there was another pretty bad pedestrian accident at a certain intersection in my city, located right behind the high school! That intersection still has those obsolete incandescent "DON'T WALK" signals, so I figured this would be the perfect time to write the following letter...

Crosswalk signals in Brockton need to be updated

I had just read the report, “ Perilous Passage” in the March 28th edition of The Enterprise about the dangerous intersection on Belmont Street right near the Brockton High School rear entrance.

It has come to my attention that the existing pedestrian signals installed there are currently outdated. They are incandescent, and consist of worded lenses spelling out the legends “Don’t Walk” and “Walk.” Other pedestrian signals in Brockton use LED lights, and the newer hand/man symbols in place of the words.

There are some people that may not be able to read English, so the worded signals may not be of much use to them, and in addition, being incandescent, the bulbs for “Don’t Walk” often burn out, making the crosswalk more hazardous.

I am suggesting those older crosswalk signals be replaced some time soon, preferably with newer countdown pedestrian signals. The intersection of Main Street and Plain Street had these kind of walk signals installed when the traffic lights were upgraded, and helped improve pedestrian safety a bit.

A costly full signal upgrade would not be needed for this Belmont Street intersection. The existing signal timer controls can be left intact, and the “Dont Walk” module replaced with an LED hand/man module, the bottom “Walk” module replaced with the timer. They can be hooked up to the existing wiring, and will automatically be set to count down during the flashing hand/”Don’t Walk” phrase.

It may also help to install “Wait for Walk Signal” road signs below or near the actual pedestrian signals themselves, to remind pedestrians the signals do exist and work.

This would help make the intersection less hazardous to cross, and would reduce the risk/number of pedestrian accidents, and along with the countdown signals being LED, they would last longer than the incandescent ones do.

The sad thing is, this is pretty much the unvarnished truth. This is what their current crosswalk signals are like at this and neighboring intersections along Belmont St.:


There used to be a LOT of these in Brockton, but most were upgraded to the "wordless" LED signals. The only intersection in Brockton currently with countdown signals is the recently-redone Main/Plain St. intersection. These particular ones could easily be retrofitted with LED countdown units like THIS:

It could easily be hooked up to the existing wiring, with no additional programming. I have timed that crosswalk's pedestrian cycle before, so when the hand blinks, it would count down from 13 to 0, which is plenty of time to finish crossing that street!

Let's just hope that letter to the editor I sent makes a difference in my hometown!

Yeah, I was doing another one of my, er, random FlickR searches, and some of you may recall this previous entry  where I showed some pics on someone's account of a snazzy-dressed Big Bad Wolf D.J-ing a music festival (and no, it's not me)...



Well, last night I actually found out the identity of this wolf. He is the Big Bad Dire Wolf, a.k.a. "Wolf Von Moonbeams!"

And from his pics and profile info, he's actually pretty cool! I may not have his musical talent, but I do love dancing around in my wolfish alter ego and getting all wolf-like with the public, just as this wolf does, but so far I've only done this a couple of times on Halloween. Hopefully I'll get to be able to do it more, maybe this year should I go to FurFright.

I'm pretty sure many of you could see me doing just that.
That reminds me, I need to get some cooler threads and touch up my wolf mask a bit so I can find more fun things for ol' Zeke Wolf to do!