Butch Can Remember Names….Sometimes!!!

   Does this ever happen to you? Someone greets you and starts a conversation, and evidently they know you, but you just can’t place who they are….so you carry on the conversation and act like you know them, while your brain is working overtime to figure out just who it is. This has happened to me several times…and then, after a few minutes, “Mr. Dale, you don’t remember me, do you?”…and I apologize, “No, I’m sorry, your face looks familiar. In what class were you in when I was your teacher?”….to which the person replies, “I wasn’t one of your students. You arrested me for drunk driving back in 1985, and you were a nice guy…just like Andy Griffith.” Hmmm…I guess that’s better than being compared to Barney.

   I can recall faces better than names. As a teacher, police officer and librarian, I have met thousands of people. I remember most, but I can’t be expected to remember everyone, especially kids who I taught back in the 1970s…who are now in their sixties and whose appearance has changed. You likely have the same problem. But there is one part of our brain that remembers everything…that is, everything we have seen in famous ads and commercials, including people, characters, and even animals. Here are just a few….

   Colonel Sanders passed away several years ago, but his famous face and name will live on for Kentucky Fried Chicken devotees. The same goes for the “Marlboro Man,” the rugged-looking cowboy who increased the sale of Marlboro cigarettes by over 3,000 percent the first year he appeared in TV commercials. That crazy gal “Flo,” who does the Progressive Insurance commercials, will likely be remembered, but I guarantee no one will forget Mr. Whipple… “Please don’t squeeze the Charmin!” The most recognizable person is Ronald McDonald, even those of you who can’t stand clowns!

   Many cereals, especially those that appeal to children, have characters in commercials or on the box itself. Who could forget Tony the Tiger (They’re Grreat!) for Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes? How about Snap, Crackle, and Pop for Rice Krispies? Do you remember the Trix rabbit, Sugar Bear, Count Chocula, and Cap’n Crunch? And whatever happened to Mikey, who tasted Life cereal?…”He likes it! Hey, Mikey!”

   There are a few animals which we will never forget…the “Energizer Bunny” will keep going and going and going on in our memories. And Morris the Cat definitely has 9 Lives. If you like critters, you will always remember the Geico gecko, Spuds MacKenzie for Bud Light, and Gidget, the Taco Bell chihuahua. Then there are characters such as “Poppin’ Fresh,” the Pillsbury doughboy and “Speedy” of Alka-Seltzer fame. I can recall those names right away.

   But there is one fellow who appeared in a commercial in which I cannot recall his name for the life of me. He was about four inches tall. He was dressed in a little skipper captain outfit. He stood in his rowboat, floating around in the toilet bowl reservoir. Whatever happened to the “Ti-D-Bol man?” I bet my wife accidentally flushed him away in the early ‘80s…and I didn’t even know his name!

John “Butch” Dale is a retired teacher and County Sheriff. He has also been the librarian at Darlington the past 36 years, and is a well-known artist and author of local history.