Jonathan was going on about Sanford needing a minor league baseball team toward the end of the show, and it reminded me that I had just recently been doing a little research into Sanford’s old championship minor league team from the 1930-40s, The Sanford Spinners.

Anyway, if anyone is interested, just Google, or check out a recent post I made about our old team’s brief connection with the famous ‘Crash Davis’ of Bull Durham fame.

My post is here:

groups.yahoo.com/group/historic-sanford-nc/message/1425

The old baseball field, Temple Park, is still there… and I’ve heard, but not confirmed, that the old foul poles from that park’s heyday are currently installed at West Lee.

And although not a big sports fan, I agree that it would be very cool for Sanford to have a minor league team again. It would be very exciting to have that sort of civic spirit behind a team.

Al

For some reason I clearly recall news reports back in his heyday that suggested he, like Milli Vanilli, was just a front for a voice-over from another singer. After I wrote my post above, I took a short break from work and did a little Google’ing on Mr. Astley…. and seem to have discovered my mistake! It seems he really did sing! Who woulda thought that deep voice really came from that skinny kid!? Heh.

…although I’m pretty sure he didn’t do those backflips

My apologies Rick!

So, regarding the radio show, although you totally lost me on local sports(no fault of your own), you piqued my memory when you mentioned the old McDonald’s ashtrays. I had totally forgotten about those little aluminum saucers. Weren’t they anodized gold? And they were always burnt up, bent, melted, and nasty looking.

Another McDonald’s throwback trivia item that has its roots in ‘addictive chemicals’ are the old micro-spoon coffee stirs. Do you remember those? As a kid I thought they were super nifty, with a teeny-tiny spoon at one end, and a stylized McDonald’s arches design at the end of the long slender handle. Although these were great from a marketing standpoint, and just very cool from a design standpoint, they unfortunately were also very popular with the cocaine crowd apparently.

The use of these tiny spoons for cocaine finally got so much press that McDonald’s changed to a rather boring flat stir, and eventually to the commoditized squished flat small straw stir we see today. Bah, how boring!

One can see an image of the old spoons here:

/www.bigredtoybox.com/cgi-bin/toynfo.pl?mcdonaldscoffeestirrersindex

I was kinda bummed when they pulled them, as I used to collect them as a small kid when we’d take family trips and get the then new and novel ‘fast food breakfast’ at McDonald’s

They apparently sell for $5 now. I guess I should have saved my box full of them for eBay.

So, since so much was made on this installment of ‘The Rant’ about local sports, how does the recent arrest of at least one star athlete at Southern Lee potentially impact the coming season? ….not to mention the impact to these youngsters’ lives. What a shame they apparently(not yet convicted of course) did something so stupid.

Al

Perhaps a special section for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame museum should be created for similar ’slight of hand acts’ like his and Milli Vanilli

So hey, has anyone else seen the JCPenny ‘Breakfast Club’ knock-off ad running on TV right now? Kinda lame, but kinda nostalgia-neat if you’re a fan of the film.

If you haven’t, I’m sure a quick Google will find it in short order

Al