Several years ago, this olelongrooffan was up in the Ozarks helping my family put my Mom to rest alongside my Dad. At the time, I did a blog about it and, should you wish, you can see it here. At the time, I spotted the sole remaining Celebrate Life sticker my Dad had made up back in the day on the roof of Bus-Plunge's short bus we took to the cemetery that fateful day in July.
I remember as a kid these Celebrate Life stickers were everywhere. Even my Dad's assistant had tons of them all over her ragtop Bug. It was pretty cool.
Well, anyway, when thejeepjunkie and this olelongrooffan returned home from the Ozarks, we were sitting around trying to come up with a way to make a buck or two. We decided to revive the Celebrate Life image and have a bunch of new fangled magnets made up thinking they would be a huge success. While the thought behind the image is a great one, the magnets never really took off on a commercial basis. Sure those of us who remembered the original Celebrate Life magnets wanted some and even my daughter's Mom picked up a few for her siblings. So, consequently this olelongrooffan still has a few hundred of them gathering dust under my massive California King at the Taj Mahal.
But an interesting thing happened last week. This olelongrooffan was down in Fantasyland for my daughter Jessica's high school graduation and I received an email.
"My all time favorite button and sticker is your Celebrate Life sticker. I had them when I was in college in 1970. I still treasure my button! I would like to order 10 magnets."
I emailed her back and replied in the affirmative that I would get them off to her when I returned to the Birthplace of Speed.
Thank you for your email. I was tickled to read it. Yes, I love Celebrate Life buttons and stickers. Here is my story. I was in college at the University of Maryland in 1968-1971. I lived right down the street from campus. My first car was an Austin Healey Sprite...British Racing Green." I had a close friend who was a priest. He was the one who gave me my first Celebrate Life button. We used to get them at a wonderful shop in Washington, DC called The Sign of Jonah. We used to go there and buy tons of buttons and stickers and give them out to all of our friends. It was a special "thing" for all of my friends. We just loved those buttons and stickers. They made us full of joy... It was truly a happy time for my friends and I. I put the buttons all over my car... Well, peace buttons (It was the Vietnam Era you know) and most prominent of all were the Celebrate Life buttons... To us they simply meant... Live Joyfully! I had a Celebrate Life sticker right on the hood of my car. My priest friend made his version of Celebrate Life with posters stenciled with the words... I am sending you a picture of me with my car... Her name was Ezmerelda... Ezzie for short. You cannot see the Celebrate Life on the car but I am also mailing you a few pictures. I would have scanned them but I have a new printer/computer and I am still getting used to it. So they will be coming via snail mail. There is a picture of my little brother and his friends sitting in my car and another of one of my friends in the car with the sticker right in front. Everyone wanted to have me take their picture with the Celebrate Life Car!!!! I think that you will get a kick out of the pictures. Ezzie and her Celebrate Life sticker was pretty famous here at the University of Maryland... It was so much fun riding around with the top down... and that Celebrate Life sticker right on the hood... Everyone would smile and wave!!! I now have a convertible Mini Cooper that is British racing green!!! Her name is Ezzie Too!! I plan to put a magnet right on her hood and one on the back just like the old college days!!! Joy and peace and love!!! I cannot wait!! I am ordering a few extra magnets to give to some of my friends!!! They are already excited by the idea!!
Hi John! Thank you for the magnets!!! Ezzie Too loves her new look! How retro!! Yes, I am still a hottie! Yes, you certainly may share my story! No, You probably do not know my priest friend because he lives in Maryland! Not Missouri!) {*~*} I love to look at my stickers! They make me smile! You are going to laugh when you see the Celebrate Life sticker on Ezzie One!! Thanks again!
I cannot convey to those of you Counting Along With this olelongrooffan how great that makes me feel.
I also blog over at Hooniverse under the name Longroofian and for the past couple years some of we Hoons submit our names into the Hoonimas pool to get another Hoon's name to exchange Hoonimas gifts with. It is pretty cool. Last year I received a cool fellow Hoons name and sent him off some stuff including a couple Celebrate Life magnets. You would not believe it but he remembers them as a kid. Here is his story.
I have two of the magnets on the back of my car thanks to OLRF. One time in a Target parking lot a lady gave me an earful thinking they were about abortion. I paraphrase: How could I use a hippie image on an old car to be anti abortion, those were all about feminism, yaddayadda. I told her, she calmed down. When I was a kid in a Catholic school in the '80s my religion teacher had a CL sticker on the back of her Cherokee. They made it pretty far, she lived in Geneva IL. It was a very nice and catchy slogan your dad came-up with!
Here's a funny thing, CL came-up recently for me. I went to that Volvo show in St. Louis this past weekend. Fred's wife Ginger (Fred's the guy that helps me so much with Volvo stuff - an old friend of one of my friend's dad) was there too and back when I was a kid she was the religious ed secretary (I think). Anyway I asked asked her if she remembered the CL stickers on Mrs. Cordier's Jeep and she said she thought it was just some hippy thing. So more info on my great religion teacher, she would have me fast for world peace, do the rosary for peace in Ireland, meditate instead of lunches and recess, played Simon and Garfunkle as well as Imagine for us, etc. Well not just me, a whole bunch of students. She was really neat lady, I really liked her and her husband a ton (he taught me history later). Our music teacher for a while was a disgraced nun that married. It was really crazy cool progressive parish back then. Anyway I got off on a tangent, sorry. So anyway I was talking with Ginger and she said that she thought those were just some hippie flower stickers that she had on her cars. Apparantly she had them on cars before then too. Coming from Ginger the hippie comment might not have been very complimentary though. Anyway, I told Ginger what I learned from you, that they were a Catholic slogan.
Yeah Counters, even though this olelongrooffan is gainfully employed, I am basically making wages these days but being able to cheer total strangers up with something as simple as one of these magnets really allows me to
Celebrate Life.
Hope you do too.
