Jon, The BIG RED Viking

(In my haste to get this post out into blogland, and due to my constant and overwhelming desire to bask in the admiration of my peers, I presented this picture of BIG RED and the lyrics for his song as if they were from my own research. The truth is that last night I sent my little brother Christian an email pleading for his help, because I was sure that that even though I couldn't find what I wanted, he could. And he did. Thank you, Christian.)



Sometime in the 80's there was a commercial on SNL for BIG RED. BIG RED was your stereotypical Viking pillager, complete with horn helmet, bear pelt and flagon of mead. But in parody of all those water sprinkler-type toys, Big Red spun around and from his horns squirted........blood. Well, red goop, actually. The jingle:

First you put the goop
In the helmet thing
But you better watch out
When you pull the string!

BIG RED!

I just loved that commercial. (I also loved the breakfast cereal Quarry. Because it's crunchy.)

On Saturday while I was out with Sid for pack check (more on that at another time), the four younger kids were home alone when Jon tripped in his room and slammed his head into the corner of his closet door. Calvin couldn't reach me on my cell so he called Nana. Thankfully, Nana had some room in her schedule for bandaging wounds and wiping down walls. Because Jon went BIG RED all over his room, the hallway, the bathroom. Predominantly on the carpet. When I got home Nana was upstairs scrubbing carpet and as I joined her, I couldn't help but think of BIG RED. Jon later explained that when he realized he was bleeding from his head, he freaked out and ran screaming all around his room. I'm pretty sure I could be a crime scene investigator, because looking at the room that is exactly what I figured had happened.