I returned from two of my three weeks of Nerd Camp to find a Gazette in my car. The first time was because of my interview that was published but this time it was HoHo.
My sister and I were huge fans. Huge huge fans. We watched him every Saturday and both had him entertain at our fourth birthday parties. His birthday was sometime close to mine and so when he came to my party I gave him a set of suspenders and he opened them on television!!!
I have a few "tapes" that I can play in my head from my childhood. They are words I can still hear if I concentrate enough. One of my favorite "tapes" is of HoHo saying to Pokey, "We have a present here from a friend of ours, Educat." I was on television (remember, I was also an attention whore as a child)!!!!
Three years later, when my sister turned four and he came to her party, she gave him a set of suspenders too, for Christmas (she has a December birthday).
Every time we saw HoHo, at the State Fair, Home and Garden shows, anywhere, he remembered the whole family.
I loved how his sock puppet sidekick, Pokey, was such a smart ass. I loved that Mister Mistoe (who I think was the pseudonym for his producer or director or something) would often voice over "Big Deal, HoHo."
My sister and I were away at church camp when his funeral was televised in 1988. Dad taped it for us and we both watched it when we got home and we both cried. I later found out that a painfully shy child in my Speech class was his grandaughter. I let her do one speech for me alone and one in front of her soccer team. It was the least I could do for HoHo's granddaughter. I remember him telling us at both of our parties "If I seem scary to you, remember that underneath all of this makeup, I am a PaPa.".
So my sister made me read the Gazette article out loud in front of her and watched me tear up. We are both looking for our HoHo birthday pictures and when we get them, I will probably scan them in here. There isn't much about HoHo on the internet. I will be happy to contribute.
So when I saw how many copies of this week's Gazette she had laying around, I asked her if she had more of this issue than of the one with my picture in it. She admitted she did have more of HoHo and added, "After all, you're no HoHo."
Few of us are.
2 comments:
You know his daughter Queenie is a PC West grad and an OSU grad. My friend Kathy (also PCW grad) and I visited with her in college frequently.
At the time I didn't know much about HoHo since I was from Tulsa. I grew up with Lee Woodward and King Lionel (see tulsatvmemories.com ).
NK
I remember lunch every Saturday at Chi-chi's with my sisters, grandmother and mother...Thank you for reminding us of this precious part of our childhood!
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