collective memory

I've been thinking about memories since reading this weird trip on the old Crow blog.  It is weird because I've never heard of the sitcom Too Close for Comfort before.  That itself is kind of weird because I was raised on sitcoms.  I remember watching Small Wonder, the show with the little girl robot.  Sure everyone claims they liked that show because VH1 I Love the 80s mentions it.  But I can remember episode gags.  Like how the robot girl Vickie was super strong and could drag the dad around.  And how they used green screens to show the dad demonstrating how he'd make the robot girl age with the girl getting bigger via green screen.  And just to show you how much I love sitcoms I'm going to drag up a sitcom from the 80s that only I seem to remember:  Down to Earth.  Thank God for IMDB or I'd probably go crazy, but I remember the sitcom about the flapper who dies in the 20s and comes back as a guardian angel for a yuppie family.  The catch phrase of the show was "wacky do".




Thank you youtube, for giving me my sanity.  Nobody seems to remember the show but me.  Wacky Do!

Collective memory is a weird thing.  Growing up in metro Detroit lots of old people told grand stories of old Detroit.  School teachers told me this tall tale more than once:  back in the day (the 50s and 60s) if you got off the train in Detroit you'd be immediately accosted by Ford and GM recruiters just begging you to come work in the factory.  No really, many people told me this story with heartfelt sincerity.  Back in the day they were so desperate for workers that the car companies sent recruiters to canvass the streets like some hobo looking for money for St Ides.  Just begging you, no matter who you were, to come work for middle class wages with no skills or education.  Please baby please!

To this day I've never really found any hard evidence for this.  It is such a tall tale that it is hard for me to take seriously.  People say this went on through the 70s even.  Could this really have happened?