02-05/Ricky Stratton

Here's your flashback for the week - Silver Spoons. Ricky Schroeder played Ricky Stratton, the son of a Peter Pan type millionaire. This sexy cast also comprised of Alfonso Ribeiro and the young man we've all come to love, Jason Bateman.

I'll take you through my thought process on how I remembered this show. Follow me.

Laying in bed, inspecting the paint on my ceiling for a good hour, I couldn't sleep. Downstairs, the 65 inch TV was proving its manhood by yelling out the crashes and booms of an alien video game played by my roommate. I had given in to not sleeping for a while, so I put on Top Chef in my room. Stefan won the quickfire by filleting an eel. Ok, TV off.

My mind started wandering again, and I teased myself with spurts of slumber. The 5 minute stints would end abruptly because I was awake enough to realize the onset of a dream. I would shut them down immediately as my semi-lucid mind would wander in those directions, and tonight, I was just not in the mood for them.

Then my roommate, on a break from killing aliens, engaged in a phone conversation that included yelling about bean-counters to an undisclosed party. I was the one that started Zach's late evening Pomegranate and Vodka convention, so I was partly responsible.

"If a company can go without the bean-counters, they are going to utilize that option for cost cutting measures."

Alex came to mind, so I came downstairs for a bathroom break, and to say in pure Ward fashion,

"Hey beancounter, stop yelling."

His retort was a comment about credit cards, and we shared a genuine hearty laugh, and I turned to the stairs. I knew this next attempt at rest was futile, but I was going for it anyway.

Plopping back on the bed, ironically trying to smother my face in the pillow, I heard the phone convo cease, and the aliens went to bed. Ok, we have a shot now, stay focused and think about baseball or something. The soft silence was frightening, because now I had no other distraction from sleep, and was going to give in.

Then I heard, and felt...

vvvvvvvvvrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr followed by
vvvvvvvvvrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr followed by
vvvvvvvvvrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Midway through, I realized the old people that lived behind us were going to bed, using that chair that electronically drives people up the stairs. It vibrated the wall, and was slightly audible, at least enough for me to discern the noise.

Then I thought about how it would be cool to have a whole railroad of these motorized chairs through our house. Instead of having them ascending stairs, why not have them along the floor. I thought of an elaborate network, consisting of three stations, The Living Room ( EmptyPizzaBox Station ), the Kitchen ( Carpeted-Kitchen St.), and the Bathroom ( DirtyDan Memorial Square ).

While I recognize this is highly offensive to people that utilize this type of chair for sincere reasons, I still found it to be funny. Then I thought of Silver Spoons where he drove the train around the house. I fell asleep thinking about Jason Bateman.

So there you go.

ck