Soupy Sales died this week. Now I know that there are tons and tons of people out there who have never even heard of Soupy Sales. But for people like me, he was a hero. He came on at lunch hour in my area, and everyday I sat and watched my Soupy while eating the proverbial peanut butter and grape jelly sandwich. (you could do that back then.)

Soupy was at the top of the favourite kids shows TV land list, then came Captain Kangaroo with his pal, Mr. Greenjeans. Oh, and there was Howdy Doodie, Popeye and the Friendly Giant, but none of them captured your heart and funny bone like Soupy.

But what made Soupy really special for me and my friends in the Windsor/Detroit area was that Soupy's show was local! The show originated in 1953 from the studios of WXYZ-TV in Detroit. Beginning in October 1959, it was telecast nationally on the ABC television network.

During the time that Lunch with Soupy aired in Detroit, Sales hosted a nighttime show, Soupy's On.The guest star was always a musician, and frequently a jazz performer, at a time when jazz was popular in Detroit and the city was home to twenty-four jazz clubs. Sales believed that his show helped sustain jazz in Detroit, as artists would regularly sell out their nightclub shows after appearing on Soupy's On. I think he was right. Coleman Hawkins, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker, and Stan Getz were among the artists who appeared on the show; Miles Davis made six appearances. Clifford Brown's appearance on Soupy's On, according to Sales, may be the only extant footage of Brown, and has been included in Ken Burns' Jazz and an A&E Network biography about Sales.

And probably, Soupy Sales should be known for that contribution to Jazz and Detroit. But, he's not. That's adult stuff. It was us kids that loved and adored him. He came across as being a really nice guy who cared about us.

Now, I've been trying to think of a fairly modern day show that even comes close to Soupy's crazy panache and the only one that comes to mind is Pee Wee's Playhouse, only Soupy was so much funnier and had more class. There was a lot of comic banter with his two "dogs", White Fang and Black Tooth, which were just enormous paws that would wave out from the camera while they "talked." White Fang's words were "Er, er er er" and Black Tooth had a weird pitched voice, kind of like that guy Gollum, from 'Lord of the Rings.' I loved White Fang.

Then there were the two puppets at the window, Pookie the Lion and Hippy the Hippopotamus. I don't think either of them spoke, but Pookie would lip-sync Frank Sinatra singing "Young At Heart." It was a little disturbing.

Somewhere in the episode, Soupy would get a huge, fluffy pie in the face which always made me laugh. Because of Soupy, I threw one at my father, once, a coconut cream pie. I didn't get the big laugh that Soupy always got.

I have to admit that my favourite part of each episode was when Soupy danced. Boy did he dance! He would leap across the stage and make all sorts of moves with such joy and glee that invariably I found myself dancing with him. I can still do his famous Soupy Sale Schuffle.

Then there was the door. At some point in every show there would be a knock at the door and Soupy would answer. Sometimes it was a famous person. Sometimes they'd show some clip from an old movie, like cowboys galloping and shooting toward the camera or an elephant stampede from a Tarzan movie. Once the crew played a trick on Soupy and had a naked lady, out of scene, greet him at the door. We kids didn't know what happened, we just saw Soupy laugh hysterically and try valiantly to regain his composure. The joke was brought up on the six o'clock news that night. (Clearly our town didn't have a whole of happenings going on.)

In retrospect, I have wondered if perhaps Soupy was a little hyperactive, or maybe ADHD, or maybe a little bit Manic. If he was, I'm glad he wasn't treated for it.

Soupy went on to New York and Los Angeles, and hosted many shows. For me, though, I will fondly think of him as the guy with the dogs who entertained me at lunchtime and made me laugh.

Okay, seriously, where did August and September go? No one told me aging means that your life suddenly goes on jetpropel to the finish line. This does not make me happy at all. Especially when it's a finish line that I don't particularly want to see.
So to summarize in a nutshell....August was great, summer finally arrived. I went swimming every day. September was bad, my blood sugar and blood pressure decided to join forces against me and both went out of whack at the same time. Just in time for the High Holidays. It happened so suddenly, too. It made me wonder if it was a sign from above to seriously look at my life and where I wanted it to go.
Per doctor's orders, I did not go to services this year, and I have to say that I did not miss it. Not one little bit. Instead, I went for a long walk in the woods with my dogs, Max and Brinkley. And surprise! I felt a far more profound and significant connection to God there than I ever felt in our Reform Synagogue.
The immediate question I asked was why? How could that be? I love being Jewish.
There was a time in my life, when the kids were small, that I walked to the Orthodox Shul every Saturday and every holiday without fail. We celebrated Shabbos every week, had friends over for the Friday night. My kids wore tzitzis and kippahs and I kept my house kosher. We were practically Shomer Shabbos! So, what happened?
Well, I was happy and content with the way our lives were filled with the rituals and traditions of Judaism, but my husband was miserable. He was raised in a Reform household. Oh sure, they had Friday night dinner, but then everyone went their way. They did not have Havdalah or a Sukkah or their very own lulav and esrog. He hated the Orthodox service. Where I found comfort in the ancient words being said the same way and at the same time with the same tunes and chants, my husband was bored. Even though he reads Hebrew beautifully and understands a lot of it, Will objected to the service being all in Hebrew.
By the time my sons had their Bnai Mitzvot, they realized their father hated the Orthodox way of life. So, the three of them ganged up on me and announced they no longer wished to be kosher, they no longer wanted Friday nights, and they sure as heck weren't going to shul anymore. Within a week my beautiful kosher kitchen was no more and my lovely way of life with so my family, my traditions and ritual, and my feeling that my life had a Higher meaning, was out the door.
Now it was only my daughter and I who were at the Shabbos dinner table during the bruchas. The men in the family arrived after they were finished.
Even going to Israel for my daughter's Bat Mitzvah did not sway them from what I thought were their errant ways. The Goldstein men are quite content without religion in their lives.
I tried to reintroduce Shabbos a couple of years ago, but it's not really working. Two of my kids are in show Business and often have gigs on Friday nights. The third one is the child who had rebelled the most against being Orthodox.
There a few things that are clear, now. My husband is quite content, now that he isn't required to attend services or have people in his house for Shabbos and the holidays. So are my sons. My daughter misses the Friday nights and holiday festivities.
But what is most obvious to me now is that I am the one who is miserable.
What to do??
There's the conundrum. Really, what do you do? Two opposite ends of the religious spectrum living in one household. Who wins. Or more to the point can anyone win in this kind of situation?
Being ill for over a month has certainly given me time to reflect on that and what is important to me and what makes me happy. And now that I've started on this path of introspection and reflection I realize it's going to take a lot more time before I can make any kind of serious decisions.
There are, however, three things I do know, now. I love my husband very much, even though he drives me crazy. I do want to write more and have a lot more time to do that. And I do want to be kosher again, maybe even be vegetarian. Just have to convince my husband about that one.
I do think that both my husband and I need to slow our lives down a lot. We ain't spring chickens anymore, no we ain't. And then once that happens, maybe I can slowly reintroduce Shabbos just for me.
That would be a good start to making me happy.
Shana Tova everyone.