Long before Jim and Jane Henson introduced the Muppets to America in 1955, America had Howdy Doody, a highly popular TV show that featured Buffalo Bob Smith and his puppet character, Howdy Doody. Buffalo Bob was originally a radio announcer in New York and invented the voice for an imaginary character named Howdy Doody. He was invited to do his bit on TV in 1947 and it was such a hit it gave rise to the Howdy Doody TV show in 1947. The show was a huge hit and became the format that many other children’s TV shows around America followed in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Kids in the late 40’s and 50’s couldn’t wait to get home for “Howdy Doody Time!”
I was a big fan of the puppet, Howdy Doody, who dressed in blue jeans and a cowboy shirt and had numerous freckles, like yours truly. Once I reached school age I had more freckles than anyone in school, thus the instant tag that the school bullies gave me was, “Howdy Doody.”
I can recall being obsessed with watching the Howdy Doody show when I was 3 or 4 years old and living in Kansas City, Missouri. I couldn’t wait until Howdy Doody Time every day. Howdy Doody endorsed many products. One such product was Welch’s Grape Juice. My mother took me and my sister Pam grocery shopping one day and I spotted the Howdy Doody grape juice on the shelves. I begged and begged Mom to buy us a carton and she eventually caved in and bought a 4-pack carton.
I couldn’t wait to drink the grape juice when we got to be refrigerated and cooled off to taste the best. I waited for hours for it to get cold, but it felt like days. Eventually she deemed it was cool enough for me to drink. Dad had come home from work and was reading his newspaper in the living room. Before Mom began to cook our dinner she brought me a cool bottle of Howdy Doody grape juice, told Dad to watch me and warned me not to drink it too fast and not to drink it all. She said, “If you drink it too fast or you drink too much you’ll get a stomach ache. Dad, call me when you think Craig has had enough.” Not looking up from his newspaper, Dad responded, “Okay.”
I took a drink and I was hooked. It tasted awesome. I took one look at Dad and saw that he was buried in the newspaper. Not wanting to give up any of the grape juice, and fearing that Pam was going to turn around and start begging me for a drink, I started chugalugging the bottle. In no time I had drank the entire bottle all by myself and was looking for a way to hide the bottle and hope no one noticed (not a good plan).
Within 15 minutes my stomach was bloated and I was getting nauseated by the second. Sweat was popping out on my forehead and my bowels were in an uproar. There was more rumbling coming from my stomach than the Mauna Loa Volcano in Hawaii. Without no notice whatsoever my body rejected the grape juice, with projectile vomiting erupting like Mauna Loa and shooting across the tile floor of our living room. Dad sprung into action, knowing he was going to catch hell because he was oblivious to what I had done, Mom ran into the living room, swooped me up and took me to the bathroom to clean me up and put a cold wash cloth on my head.
I was sick for a day and we still had 3 more grape juice bottles to drink. I didn’t want any part of them. Over the following week Mom would tease me and say several times a day, “Buddy, you really need to drink the rest of your grape juice before it goes bad.” Of course she was just doing it to get a rise out of me because I would respond with, “No Mommy please, don’t make me drink the grape juice.”
I didn’t drink grape juice for many years after that. Although I love the taste of grape juice, I doubt I’ve drunk more than 12 ounces of grape juice over the past 20 years.
As for the Howdy Doody Show, it lasted until 1960. By then I was 12 years old and seldom watched the show, having outgrown it years early. Besides, I wasn’t very fond of my freckles and Howdy Doody had become a nickname I wasn’t fond about either. I would look at Howdy Doody, see the freckles and his big ears and ask God, “Why do I have to look like Howdy Doody?”
