{"id":1418,"date":"2014-04-07T05:30:12","date_gmt":"2014-04-07T15:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/grumpyseniors.com\/?p=1418"},"modified":"2014-04-07T17:33:19","modified_gmt":"2014-04-08T03:33:19","slug":"the-checkers-and-pogo-car","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/grumpyseniors.com\/?p=1418","title":{"rendered":"The Checkers and Pogo car"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Checkers-and-Pogo-sized\"<\/a>If you’re really old you probably remember Checkers and Pogo.<\/p>\n

They had a kids show on Channel 9 for years.<\/p>\n

Practically everybody who worked at\u00a0KGMB radio and TV\u00a0took part in the show in one way or another.<\/p>\n

Frankly, I don’t remember what I did.<\/p>\n

Something to do with a dog costume and a lot of around jumping around I think.<\/p>\n

But what I did is\u00a0not what this is about.<\/p>\n

Checkers and Pogo made a\u00a0bunch of public appearances and were in just about every parade.<\/p>\n

You had to be living here to really understand what a big thing their TV show was at the time.<\/p>\n

\"Checker-and-Pogo-car-sized\"<\/a>They drove around in a Ford convertible that was painted in black and white checkers.<\/p>\n

Maybe the most famous car in Honolulu.<\/p>\n

Checkers drove it all the time and kids flocked whenever they saw it coming down the street.<\/p>\n

One day KGMB decided to buy them a new car.<\/p>\n

The old one was in perfect condition and well cared for – but it was time.<\/p>\n

They got the new car and a sign went up on a bulletin board in the station.<\/p>\n

Old C&P car for sale.
\nMake an offer.<\/p>\n

So I did.
\nI now owned the Checkers and Pogo car.<\/p>\n

I drove it home and people in cars and along the sidewalks were waving and yelling and I wanted to hide.<\/p>\n

Good grief, I’d never be able to go to the hoochi-koochi bars with the whole town seeing me coming and going and thinking it was Checkers out ruining his reputation.<\/p>\n

I didn’t have one but he did and I wasn’t going to ruin it with my hanky-panky.<\/p>\n

So that weekend I bought 10 gallons of paint remover and poured it over everything and scraped off the checkers.<\/p>\n

Then three coats of grey primer went on and I was incognito again.<\/p>\n

Looking back on it – I’m surprised the skies didn’t open up and a bolt of lightning fried my butt.<\/p>\n

It was blasphemy.<\/p>\n

The thing belonged in Bishop Museum or some place like that.<\/p>\n

It was like smearing paint over the Mona Lisa.<\/p>\n

At the time I didn’t think anything about it.<\/p>\n

It was a great car.
\nRan perfectly and looked like it just came off the showroom.<\/p>\n

Except for the grey paint.<\/p>\n

I had great times in that car.<\/p>\n

Many of which I would be horrified to talk about today.<\/p>\n

I eventually traded it in when I bought a new car.
\nThe sales guy didn’t believe me when I told him who owned it before.<\/p>\n

The whole thing reminds me of a certain Seinfeld episode – if you’re old enough to\u00a0remember that one.<\/p>\n

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