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Wednesday, April 15, 2020

The pickle



Most of the day it has rained, except when it snowed. Some things went wrong, most went right. At least it all got done. On the whole, the day reminded me of Dick Goddard and the pickle.

Dick Goddard was the meteorologist for one of the three Cleveland television stations. Three stations! That’s how old this story must be. I’ll look up some pictures to include of the long running weatherman.

I remember Dick on the dorm televisions when I was in college in the sixties, and on our little black and white television in the seventies. He was there in the eighties and nineties, and forever.

He made weather boards to show us what was going on. He strung up white pointed front lines. He had whirly tornados and glorious sunshine. He had white clouds and he had grey clouds with rain.

Once Dick was not there and the station manager was tapped for the weather job for the day. He stood bravely by Dick’s weather board and managed very well until he came to the weekend forecast of rain.

“Now for the weekend,” he said, “we’re dealing with the pickle again!” If there was noise in the studio, it went dead quiet. If it were color TV, his red face would have been noted. He was obviously disconcerted. He opened his mouth again, to put his foot in further.

“Those rain clouds look just like pickles. Don’t you agree? Every time I see them on his boards, I think ‘well, we’re under a pickle again!’”

When I was the artist at shows, the pickle was too familiar. At a show at Sea World in Aurora, Ohio, artists were shoulder to shoulder around the main concourse. It was a two weekend show and we didn’t have to tear down our displays during the week. I suppose the regular season was over and this was prior to other entertainment.

The artist next to me was a water colorist. The first weekend we chatted, and as the weather forecast looked more ominous, Dick Goddard’s pickle sprang to mind and I told her of the night I saw the pickle broadcast.

It did rain most of the week, but the next weekend was glorious sunshine. When I arrived early Saturday morning to set up, the water color artist presented me with a special memento.

She had painted our two tents, huddled together, under a fat, ominous raining pickle. And one said to the other, “This is a fine pickle we’re under!”

I always hung several small pictures in my booth, mostly of us weaving or sewing. And I hung the pickle, too, and was happy to explain to anyone who noticed.


This is post 1,500!

33 comments:

  1. Congratulations on 1500!
    Wonderful story, makes me smile. I will be looking for pickles in the clouds. lol

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  2. Thanks for the chuckle this evening Joanne.

    That’s a lot of writing! Well done.

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  3. I love your stories of when you were on the show circuit.

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  4. That gave me a chuckle. Thanks for that. We were under a pickle today.

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  5. What a great story. I love the pickle.

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  6. That's funny! Were you doing shows as a weaver or painter?

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  7. Congrats on post 1500!! An achievement indeed!! Too cute with the pickle story; I'm going to remember it when I hear our weathermen try to figure out what is going on with our weather at times :)

    betty

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  8. Goodness... and here I thought you were going to recite the story of "Alice's Restaurant" where the guy had a microphone stuck in a pickle... LOL here... Congratulations on 1500 posts! What an achievement... how many years have you been writing?? I don't know what my count is--have never bothered to look, but I'm quite sure it's nowhere near 1500! And I forgot to say how lovely those yellow towels are. So soft looking... and I know they ARE soft! But the color is like butter. Nice! Hugs to you!

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  9. Good post, Congratulations as well.

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  10. Smiling at the name of Goddard's book and at your story of the substitute weatherman. Congrats on 1500 posts; that is a real achievement!

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  11. Love that story! And congratulations!

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  12. What a delightful story! And also, congratulations on your 1500!

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  13. LOVE the pickle story. Many thanks for the smiles and for all of your posts.

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  14. I enjoyed the pickle story - glad you shared it. When you live in an area a long time you do get used to certain local weather and news people and you begin to feel like you know them personally. I bet Mr. Goddard would have loved to see a copy of that raining pickle.

    Congratulations on 1,500 posts! A milestone to be proud of for sure. I don't think I'll ever get that many at the slow rate I've been going. I'm sure glad I found your blog though and I'm looking forward to the next 1,500!

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  15. Love the story, Joanne. Too funny. And congrats on 1,500. Looking forward to many more.

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  16. Lovely story Joanne, how everything was so basic in the old days of television.

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  17. I've never heard Under a Pickle before. I've heard In a pickle, which makes even less sense.

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  18. Funny story, and congrats on 1,500 posts! Keep em coming!

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  19. Hari OM
    Hehehe - that was a good post, Joanne - as others have said, a smile-raiser and that is fine weather!!! Here in the UK when I was growing up Michael Fish was our equivalent of your Dick. He'd get very inventive with his weather maps, once floating one on a pond and trying to land in the drink himself as he pranced about the regions!!! YAM xx

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  20. The '60s and '70s, when we clomped about in platform shoes and owned the world!
    Congratulations on your 1,500 post... I look forward to every single one!!

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  21. Some of those old-time weathermen were real personalities. And at least here, they were all trained meteorologists.

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  22. I love Dick Goddard. I used to work in the Keith Bldg at 17th & Euclid and every evening I'd wait for the bus and see Dick hoof it up from the parking lot on 17th up to the WJW Bldg at the same intersection. And that was back in the late '60s so he was MY weather guy for. ev. er. Yep. I've had to shovel a LOT of cloudy .... LOL

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  23. Wow, 1,500 posts! That is quite an accomplishment. Snow in mid-April is one sour pickle.

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  24. That was a super story...I shall now think of our rainy season as pickle season...

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  25. Reminds me a bit of "Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs." Have you read that book? It's a kids' book and it's a hoot.

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  26. I just love this story and it brought back one of my own when dad and I stayed in some remote cabin and at night there was one channel on this old TV and we waited with bated breath for this funny weatherman to come on and do the weather. I remember laughing so hard. It wasn't pickles but they way he arranged his little gadgets and how he spoke.

    Thanks for this!

    XO
    WWW

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  27. What a lovely story! It's great to see shapes in clouds. Or trees. Or stones or anywhere really.

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  28. Congrats on 1500 blogposts..it just grows!
    There are certain weathermen we look forward to, both in Scotland and NZ.
    They just convey the message with enough good humour and skill

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