Time for beanie...

This image, which came from Pappy's Golden Age Comics, brought back memories of my first day of college. I was seriously out of place at Westminster College in Salt Lake City, Utah, but my dad was a grad, circa 1942, and was determined I get my diploma from his old alma mater. I reported to school on Day One of my freshman year with absolutely no idea of what was going on. All I had was a list of classes to attend and a stack of textbooks. That was when I found out that freshmen were "required" to wear a ridiculous beanie for the first day. You know what a beanie is, don't you...they don't make them anymore, except as jokes, but they were a little skull cap, like the knife-wielding upperclassman is wearing in the picture above. Sometimes beanies had propellers, which is why eggheads are sometimes called "propeller heads." They were reputed to have worn these things as a nerdish fashion statement. I hope it was a lie.

Anyway, my experience in a beanie lasted about 10 minutes. I hated the idea, but dutifully put it on. I joined a group of other freshmen. We were accosted by a couple of grinning upperclassmen, who corralled us and told us we were going to learn the Westminister College school song. Luckily I was in the back of the group, so while they were learning the song I slipped off, found the nearest trash can and dumped my beanie. I wandered around finding my classes. The sophs, juniors and seniors had to notice I was a lost 18-year-old, but I wasn't wearing a freshman beanie, so thank god I was spared further torture.

There are other associations with the word beanie. There are Beanee Weenies, a "food" product I've never eaten, and the name probably put me off. Anything with the name "weenie" just doesn't sound appetizing to me. It doesn't help that a friend of mine used that term for people he didn't like: "That guy is a real beanee weenie!" He didn't swear, and I told him to start learning some real curse words because if he's mad at someone and calls them a beanee weenie they might just laugh him out of the place, if not put him on the ground.

There were those damn Beanie Babies. This is "Pugsley." I mean, they're cute, but c'mon...some people turned them into a cult. Are they still around and being collected?

There are the ubiquitous jelly beans, usually found on cubicle counters in the work place come Easter. I'll bet I've lost at least a couple of teeth to jelly beans.

Finally, there was the TV show, Time For Beany. The little boy character, Beany, actually wore a propeller beanie! Beany and Cecil was later a cartoon show that baby boomers remember, especially for the theme song, where animator/producer/director Bob Clampett insinuated himself into the catchy tune. Cecil the Seasick Sea Serpent sang, "...in a Bob Clampett cartoo-oooon!" his voice going up in pitch.This is from the original puppet incarnation, before the cartoon show. It's early TV, folks! It's from YouTube, episode 50, originally shown in 1949. Beany is voiced by Daws Butler, Cecil by Stan Freberg.