In this prior post https://mparij.wordpress.com/2015/11/17/tom-skeritt-and-his-connection-to-volkswagen/ I had stated that I would be discussing Gloria Steinem and her legendary activism in the women’s movement in another post. This is the post.
Gloria Steinem has always been a smart, charismatic woman.
Gloria Steinem is the high priestess of the feminist movement, she had fought and continues to fight for the feminist movement to this day; and even in her ’80’s in the present day; she remains as charismatic as she always has been.
Gloria Steinem has always been a wonderful woman with many positive qualities about her.
The magazine that she had co-founded in 1972, Ms. Magazine has been a reputable publication that has always been enjoyable to read since day one of it’s first publication.
In the Arthur movie for adults, Arthur’s parents talk with somebody about Gloria Steinem, her legendary activism in the women’s movement, how old she was when she had her breakthrough in the late 1960’s; and her being in her late 40’s and in her 50’s throughout the time this movie takes place-from the 1970’s up until the early 1990’s.
A video that was released on VHS tape about Volkswagen from 1993 that was hosted by actor, Volkswagen enthusiast; Detroit native Tom Skerritt. Here, Gloria Steinim is featured regarding her endorsement of Volkswagen in the 1970’s, and regarding the roles that women had in automobile purchases as of the 1950’s and 1960’s-being that the man of the house made the purchase and women only chose the vehicle’s exterior color and the vehicle’s interior upholstery color. And the advertisements that Volkswagen had ran in Ms. Magazine during the 1970’s, with the headlines “We Wouldn’t Run Another Ad That We Would Run In Ms.”, and “I Bought A Wagon Out Of Wedlock”.
I’ll talk briefly about Gloria Steinem and her legendary activism in the women’s movement in another post.
Volkswagen commercials featuring the voiceover of Tom Skeritt:
Video of Tom Skerritt and his personal T2 Transporter/Microbus:
In “Early Life And Continuous Livelihood”, we drive in the diesel Suburban to George Seguin’s antique store located in a storefront in downtown Romeo, Michigan. From our house, we drive down Lapeer Road; and down East Romeo Road in order to go to George Seguin’s antique store. We park in the street right in front of George Seguin’s antique store in downtown Romeo, Michigan.
Sue Waters & Linda Culliton also happen to be at George’s store in anticipation of seeing us. George had promised getting Linda & Sue to come over so that they too can visit with us.
My parents talk with George, Sue; and Linda about the different way the school district that I attend that serves Rochester City, Michigan and Oakland Township, Michigan does business as compared to the school district where my mother, George, Linda; and Sue all work. One example being that all students
My mother talks about her work as a School Bus driver in the same school district where George Seguin, Sue Waters; and Linda Culliton all work as teachers.
Linda Culliton mentions something about her working with people whose names are Bob Sierzega and Janet Langevin at the other Elementary School where she works as a Speech Therapist, and she mentions that she had taught with Bob Sierzega for many, many years. My mother says to Linda Culliton that she recalls transporting both Bob Sierzega and Janet Langevin’s classes during one of the rare times my mother ever takes a field trip.
One time while we and my paternal grandmother are eating at a restaurant in Canton, Michigan located off of Ford Road (named after Henry Ford’s father Isaac), we run into an Occupational Therapist that I’ve worked with for a number of years whose name is Sherry Foster. Sherry Foster, her husband; and their son live not to far away from where the restaurant that we’re all eating at is located.
Sherry Foster tells me that she had replaced her minivan with a Caprice wagon to haul all of her Occupational Therapy supplies (such as an indoor swing that attaches to the ceiling of the room within the school by the way of a carabineer) from one school to the other. My parents and I congratulate Sherry Foster for making the switch from the dark side (in the chase of her having her minivan) to the bright side (in the case of her now owning a Caprice wagon).
Links to an internet retailer that sells the types of indoor swing that I am referring to: http://www.rehabmart.com/product/plywood-platform-therapy-swing-34245.html http://www.rehabmart.com/product/glider-therapy-swing-34247.html http://www.rehabmart.com/product/rainy-day-indoor-net-swing-15628.html
For the record, in “Early Life And Continuous Livelihood”, I attend school in the same school district where my mother works as a School Bus driver prior to when we move into our new house in Oakland Township with my paternal grandmother. The same school district where my mother works is where I had these teachers as a student and have worked with these people.
A few of the schools throughout the entire Warren Consolidated Schools school district that serves the Metropolitan Detroit Area (and throughout the entire nation) that Shannon & Ray visit to give lectures on their books and their writing careers:
These were rare when compared to the production figures and commonality of the Front-Engine TC/2000.
Whereas the Front-Engine TC/2000 was produced from 1988-2004, and was only available with either the GM 427 V8 gasoline engine or the Cummins B-platform diesel engine, and a Spicer manual transmission or the Allison AT-545 automatic transmission; the Rear-Engine TC/2000 was produced from 1991-1998, could be had with either the Cummins B-platform or the Caterpillar 3026 diesel engines, and either the Allison AT-545 or MT-643 transmissions.
This article is about how the six months that had radically changed Detroit television media for eternity. This is a matter that “Early Life And Continuous Livelihood” deals with on the contrary: WJBK-TV forevermore remains a CBS affiliate and owned by Storer Broadcasting/Communications, WXYZ-TV forevermore remains owned & operated by ABC; and Bill Bonds continues to work at WXYZ-TV for a much longer period of time.
During an eventful half-year after Bill Bonds was booted, “Detroit really became the competitive news market it is today,” a former TV news producer writes.
This post is about my admiration for the PBS television program To The Contrary and it’s host Bonnie Erbe.
Bonnie Erbe is exactly the same age as my mother, and she’s a smart and shrewd person. She is of French-Jewish descent. Bonnie Erbe always has been the perfect fit for the position as host and moderator of To The Contrary.
For it’s first 6 seasons upon it’s debut in 1992, To The Contrary was produced alongside MotorWeek and Wall Street Week by Maryland Public Television. Bonnie Erbe did work with John Davis and Louis Rukeyser during the time To The Contrary was a product of Maryland Public Television.
After 6 seasons, production of To The Contrary was moved from Baltimore to Washington D.C because it was decided that it would be better if the show were produced in Washington D.C than in Maryland. From that point forward, the television program also began to be produced by Bonnie Erbe’s own production company that she had founded, Persephone Productions.
This post is about my admiration for the PBS television program MotorWeek.
MotorWeek is a locally produced in-house production of the PBS station in Maryland and is networked nationally by PBS. John Davis had originally come to Maryland Public Television to co-host Wall Street Week with Louis Rukeyser because of John holding a degree in Finances from North Carolina State University, but; just as John Davis was about to begin co-hosting Wall Street Week, John had heard about this new automotive magazine television show that was to be produced locally in-house and networked nationally; and so John had quickly jumped on the idea of hosting MotorWeek and had signed on as the host (the rest, they say; is history).
It is unknown as to how Patrick Goss; then just an owner of a Gulf Oil gas station somewhere in the Baltimore area, was tapped to become the television program’s resident mechanic and auto maintenance expert (the rest, they say; is history on Patrick Goss’s part) and the Goss’s Garage segments during the early years of the television program having been filmed on the front tarmac of Pat’s Gulf Oil gas station near where the gas pumps were mounted and outside the shop area/convenience store.
The television program should remain the same as it was from the 1980’s all the way until the late 1990’s. (And it does in “Early Life And Continuous Livelihood”).
Examples of how the show continues to remain the same as it does in “Early Life And Continuous Livelihood”:
The show’s original disco-like opening & closing music that had been composed by Baltimore native Don Barto Sr. (who is of Portuguese descent) that had been used until 1989 and had later been used as the opening music on The Frugal Gourmet (which, along with Rick Steves’s shows all along; had been produced by KCTS-TV in Seattle) and the show’s opening theme from its inception on October 15, 1981 was definitely not bad, and nor was the show’s original opening from its inception on October 15, 1981 until 1989 that had real car designers at work on a drafting board and an animated cutaway of front-wheel drive compact hatchback was not bad either; and I like the fact that this theme music and opening had lasted all the way until 1989. I also like the ID that Maryland Public Television had used with the animated flower during the early 1980’s to indicate that the show was and is a local, in-house production of Maryland Public Television.
Prior to the airing of each MotorWeek episode during the early 1990’s, the show had featured a license plate on the rear bumper of a Mitsubishi 3000GT that read “Viewers Like You” during the teaser that is aired prior to all PBS programs broadcasting the sponsors of a particular television program and an announcer stating “Is Made Possible By Public Television Support From Viewers Like You”
The young hoodlum MotorWeek staffers such as Greg Carloss, Zack Maskell; and Patrick Lucas are not my cup of tea. Instead of the bad music that both Greg Carloss, Zack Maskell; and Patrick Lucas each listen to; they should be forced to listen to music like Seals & Crofts’s “Summer Breeze” and “You’re The Love”; Phil Collins & Genesis’s “No Reply At All”, Benny Mardones’s “Into The Night”, Laura Branigan’s “Self Control”; and Elton John’s “I’m Still Standing”. Or maybe even perhaps Donna Summer’s “On The Radio” and “She Works Hard For The Money”.
Throughout the years, MotorWeek had tested a 1983 A1 GTI, 1984 XJ Cherokee, 1986 MJ Comanche, 1986 Alfa Romeo GTV6, 1988 Chevrolet Full-Size pickup, 1988 Maserati Bi-Turbo, 1989 K5 Blazer of the preceding generation; 1989 Mazda MPV that John himself had bargained a pre-production version from Mazda for after asking them what that van parked in Mazda North America’s parking lot in Irvine, California is, and they respond “What Van”? A Volkswagen Fox in the late 1980’s, the original Ford Taurus SHO in 1989, the C4 Corvette ZR1 in 1990; a Caprice Wagon in 1991, a Lincoln Town Car in 1992, the successive generation of Suburban in 1992, the Volkswagen T4 in 1992, a Crown Vic & a Grand Marquis in 1992, the Corrado in 1992, an 80-Series Toyota Land Cruiser twice-once in 1991 and again in 1993; the A3 Golf/Jetta in November, 1993; my beloved 2-door Yukon of the successive generation with a diesel in 1994, the A3 GTI in 1995; the newly-fangled 4-door Tahoe in 1995, tested an XJ Cherokee again in 1995, did an episode on the near-death of the Japanese sport cars (Z-Car, Supra, Mazda RX-7, Honda/Acura NSX; and the Mitsubishi 3000GT) in 1996; and the TJ Wrangler in 1997. And this is only a shortlist of the 5,000+ vehicle reviews that MotorWeek has conducted to date in the television program’s 35 year history.
A couple more of the 5,000+ vehicle reviews that MotorWeek has conducted to date are, of all things; a Hustler 50 Pace Boat on the water in 1995 and some sort of customized Banks Turbocharged Chevrolet Pickup Truck in 1993.
To date, the television program has had 4 consumer reporters throughout its 35 year history, all female. From the show’s inception in 1981 to 1989, Joyce Braga had served as the program’s original consumer reporter, followed by Lisa Barrow until 1998 when she took the job as the East Communications Relations Manager at Chrysler; followed by Jennifer Khasnabis until 2007, followed by Yolanda Vasquez-who currently holds the position to this day.
Craig Singhaus had left after working for the show for many years since the program’s inception in 1981 to take a job as a Product Trainer at General Physics Corporation.
Video of John Davis being interviewed by a locally produced, in-house television show by the PBS affiliate in Houston, Texas about how he had been tapped to host Wall Street Week and later MotorWeek:
Videos about the television program’s 35th anniversary:
John Davis and his wife really deserved the attention they received when walking through the lobby and hallways of Maryland Public Television into the studio that used to be where MotorWeek was filmed but is now just an empty studio; and was where the celebrations took place.
MotorWeek’s review of the U.S spec Land Rover Series/Defender, after it was briefly sold in the North American market in the early-mid 1990’s after a 20 year hiatus.
MotorWeek’s review of the U.S spec Foed Sierra/Merkur XR4TI (XR4TI was just the trim level of the performance variant of the car in Europe, rather than calling the car the ‘Sierra’ here in the North American market).
In reality, I haven’t talked to John Roeck (formerly of the Warren Consolidated Schools school district serving the Metropolitan Detroit area) and Jeannette Wesolowski of the Macomb Intermediate School District (another school district that also serves the Metropolitan Detroit area) in years ever since they both retired from their jobs.
I miss them dearly and I really enjoyed having them as my friends. In all honesty, I just can’t move past them, let go of them; and forget about them.
Pictures of John Roeck:
EPSON MFP image
EPSON MFP image
Pictures of Jeannette Wesolowski:
EPSON MFP image
EPSON MFP image
My mother would have always made a great School Bus driver, and in “Early Life And Continuous Livelihood”, she has been a School Bus driver working for John Roeck since 1991. As a professional and not a personal opinion, my mother would be as good of an employee as people such as Linda Koch, Pam Suer, Donna Dawe, Sue Henstock, Nancy Hume, Anita Stubblefield and her daughter Lisa Fleming; Lee Ann Roberts, and Marie Sarchol.
Mary Ann & Whit’s house in Troy, New York. This is where Mary Ann, Whit; and their family lived before they had moved to Weston, Vermont so that Whit could get into selling Real Estate.
Video of the Redstone missile being tested at the Chrysler “Detroit Arsenal” tank plant in the late 1950’s. At the end of WWII, the Chrysler “Detroit Arsenal” tank plant became the headquarters of their Defense Division until they had spun their Defense Division off to General Dynamics in 1982.
Matthew Parij 