Since George “The Animal” Steele was so eager to get the scoop on the story of the figures (see comment section from last post), I think I’ll give the story about how I got his figure back in the day.
I had a birthday party in early elementary school and invited a kid that I wasn’t in the same school as anymore. We were kind of losing touch with each other and maybe our friendship was on the outs. There are conflicting reports (in my mind) about his name and what school we attended together. Let’s call him “Brad”. Anyway, he knew I was into wrestlers and Brad gave me 2 of those generic plastic wrestling guys. The kind you could find on the cheap in a pharmacy in the 80’s, which always carried toys that nobody wanted. I pretended I liked them, but the gift made me totally disrespect his wrestling game.
I didn’t open the package and the goal was to find a store in the area that sold these jobbers so I could return them and get the $$. I spent what seemed like forever trying to find a place that carried them. Finally, the ever-sneaky Lil’ Mama suggested I just call Brad and ask where he got them from. Here’s how the phone conversation goes:
The Fredman: “Hi Brad, it’s’ The Fredman.”
Brad: “Hi”
The Fredman: “You know those wrestlers you gave me for my birthday. Where did you get them?”
Brad: “MOM! WHERE DID WE GET THE WRESTLERS FOR THE FREDMAN??”
The Fredman in his Head: “He wasn’t supposed to bring his mother into it. I didn’t plan for this.”
Brad’s Mom in the Background: “IF HE DOESN’T WANT THEM THEN GIVE THEM BACK TO ME AND I’LL RETURN THEM!”
The Fredman: “No, I really like them. I want to get more of them!”
Brad to his Mom: “No, he really likes them and wants to get more of them.”
Quick thinking by The Fredman! And mission accomplished! It was a grocery store several towns over. So that weekend Lil’ Mama with a young Fredman in tow does her food shopping at a different place. Yes, they carry the generic wrestling figures, but without a receipt this might be tricky. They said they can do an exchange, but not offer a refund in cash. That means The Fredman got to pick from a very limited selection of WWF LJN figures. Grocery stores also not known for their great toy selection. The best of that sad lot was… George “The Animal” Steele, of course.
The figure itself was one of my least favorite, and not just because I acquired it with nefarious means. George the wrestler was scary and gross looking and very hairy. His character also couldn’t form full sentences and his green tongue was always sticking out and he was slobbering. And he carried around a teddy bear he named “Mine”, because… well, it was “his”. If you put all those traits together in your mind, you can probably imagine what they were going for, and it probably wouldn’t be acceptable on TV today. You can see in the picture they tried to give him hair all over his chest and arms, but it looks more like 100’s of old gross stab wounds that haven’t fully healed. Also, the way his armed were shaped didn’t allow you to do many moves with him, maybe a DDT. In real life he had like zero wrestling moves except a punch and kick. So it makes sense that, for me, his figure was really only used for doing the turnbuckle avalanche or a splash off the ropes.
And there you have it. The Fredman’s story of George “The Animal” Steele.
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Now for some concert catchup. A couple weeks ago I went to see Bill Callahan from the band Smog play at Ardmore Music Hall. I didn’t know what to expect. Not sure if I liked it or not. It was just him and his guitar and not too exciting. Not too much energy in the place, but that’s kind of how his songs are – slow and quirky with distinct vocals. He sounded like he does on the albums. But I just wasn’t feeling it. Probably because it was a Monday night and my fantasy football team was losing.
Opening up for him was a guy named Che Chen. Dude, played electric guitar for almost 45 minutes straight without talking or even looking up at the audience. Maybe that doesn’t sound appealing, but it was pretty cool.
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In late August for Daisy’s birthday, we went to Atlantic City to see John Fogerty from Creedance Clearwater Revival! High energy and hit after hit! Fun time, go see him if you ever have the chance. Apologies for the camera phone pictures. Should have brought the real camera for this one:
Here’s a good one from early August. Life of Agony and Sick of it All at Broken Goblet Brewing in Bensalem, PA. Tom O’Leary talked me in to this one. This was my first hard core punk rock show. Sick of It All got people moshing and said their job was to get everyone would up. I would have thought the fans would be angry, but they really weren’t. They dressed angry, but didn’t really act angry. And since most in attendance were fans of these bands 25 years ago, they probably don’t have the same anger, energy and cardio conditioning as when they were younger. So we were pretty safe. And I actually enjoyed it!
Life of Agony were the headliner. They were less hardcore rock and more metal alternative. They were celebrating the 30 year anniversary of their album “A River Runs Red”. I spent the previous 2 weeks binging on that album so I would know the music. There’s a lot to unpack here, but I gotta say, they were excellent!
And I didn’t want to leave out 311 from the Atlantic City beer fest in June! Shout out to Nina from the Northeast.
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The Fredman, Spacin’, Zonin’, Talkin on the phone and…
The Fredman Bloggin' 