Jerry Seinfeld And I Lay In Our Beds, Listening

When I was a teenager, my ritual was to be in bed every Sunday night by nine o’clock.  I would tune my radio to WOR, and listen.

At the same time on Sunday nights, Jerry Seinfeld (who lived 21 miles away from me) lay in his bed, listening to his radio tuned to WOR.

And Dee Snider, when he was a teenager, lay in his bed, listening.  Dee Snider would become the lead singer of Twisted Sister

And Harry Shearer, who grew up to write the script for the movie “This Is Spinal Tap”, would lay in bed when he was a teenager, listening to his radio tuned to WOR.

So did Dan Fagen (lead singer of Steely Dan) and Bill Griffith (creator of the Zippy comic strip) and John Cassavetes (director of Alice Does Not Live Here Anymore).

On Sunday night at nine o'clock, we all listened to Jean Shepherd when we were teenagers.

We listened to Jean Shepherd because there was no other radio show like his.  Shepherd told stories.  Actually, he spun stories.

For example, at 9 PM, he would start telling the story about the drum major in his hometown of Hammond, Indiana.  The drum major was a senior in high school and was leading the final parade of his career on Memorial Day, which would remind Shepherd of the two well-dressed women who he saw outside Rockefeller Center on his way to the radio studio, who would remind Shepherd of how his mother always wore her hair up in curlers, which would remind Shepherd that his grade school teacher, Miss Shields, had hair that looked like a Brillo pad, and he would come back to his mother explaining that she kept her hair up in curlers in case something important happened but nothing important ever happened, and he would come back to the two well-dressed ladies who decided to have lunch at a hot dog cart, and he would come back, finally, to the drum major who, in front of the reviewing stand at the Memorial Day parade, tossed his baton skillfully into the air so that it landed across the trolley wires on the main street and shorted out the entire electric grid of Hammond, Indiana. 

Whew, it was 10 PM; it took an hour for Jean Shepherd to tell a story.

But it was more than a story.  It was a journey into the fabric of the mundane things in life, a journey exploring all the quirks of humanity, a journey celebrating people who are unique.

All over the New York City metropolitan area, people shared this journey, listening  to WOR on the radio on a Sunday night.

Luckily, most of America has been on a Jean Shepherd journey, a journey describing the disappointment of  Ovaltine decoder rings, the strange dusting accidents that happen to leg lamps, the agony of getting your mouth washed out with Lifebuoy soap, and the persistent desire for Red Ryder BB guns.  Yes, most Americans have watched A Christmas Story.  Not only did Jean Shepherd dip into his life to write the script, but he narrated the movie as well.  Now most of America is familiar with Jean Shepherd’s voice.

Jean Shepherd's voice entranced me – so much so that I became more observant and I tried to savor all the little moments in life. Jean Shepherd's voice also entranced Jerry Seinfeld – so much so that Jerry named his third child “Shepherd Seinfeld”.

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Here, on YouTube, is Jean Shepherd focusing on the winter night when the family car was stopped at a railroad crossing in Indiana:  (14 minutes long)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Spe7jrDUHBM

Here on YouTube is an excerpt from a typical Jean Shepherd Sunday night radio program, where the focus switches rather frequently.  Shepherd did his radio program without notes; he just sat down and started talking: (44 minutes long)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDbDXnMkOdo

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NOTE: Doug's best stories have been collected into a book: Puppy Out Of Breath.  Price = $11.  You can purchase a copy at  http://www.puppyoutofbreath.com