Amid recent concerns about earthquakes, famines and global warming, Teacher Husband recently brought an urgent issue to my attention. Since this as a question that warrants much closer examination, I, of course, have brought it to you.
Simply put: What in the heck is the deal with the guy from The Shane Company?
Do you know who I'm talking about? Tom Shane? That guy who drones on in a monotone in radio commercials about how "you've got a friend in the diamond business?" If you were born any time in the past 40 years, you must have heard him.
Now, I say 40 years, because that was when I turned ten and we had my birthday party at Farrells.
Farrells Ice Cream Parlor was the be-all and end-all for kids of my generation. It had a turn-of-the century theme and all the servers dressed in straw hats and red and white pinstripes. You never ordered cones at Farrells--at least I never knew anyone who did. Instead, you ordered these huge troughs of creamy frozen deliciousness like The Zoo. The mountains of ice cream arrived at your table, decorated to hilt with colored plastic animals and their cages. It all arrived on a stretcher-like contraption, carried by four pinstriped servers. They ran out of the kitchen as fast as they could carrying the stretcher, while bells, whistles and alarms rang out behind them. I think they may have sang Happy Birthday too, but I can't remember, so entranced was I with the whole production--not to mention the plastic colored animals.
To get to Farrells you had to drive about 25 minutes south to San Mateo to Boreal Square. Of course, driving there in a station wagon filled with squealing kids was part of the whole experience, so that was no problem. But, it was when we got to Boreal Square that I noticed a tall building--at least 5 stories high--that was labelled as: The Home of The Shane Company. (Bet you were wondering when I'd get to the connection here.) That's when it hit me for the first time that all those radio commercials were produced by a somewhat-local store. Why, for all I knew, Mr. Tom Shane himself could be sitting up there talking on the radio while I was down the square pigging out on Farrells ice cream! (Omigosh! I just remembered that one of their ice cream concoctions was actually called the Pig Out! Or the Pig Trough. Or something than had to do with a pig.)
The point being that as a child, I believed in Tom Shane. I didn't care much about him one way or the other, but he was just one of those things in life that was always there. Later when I moved farther south in California and north up to Oregon, I was a little disappointed to realize that The Shane Company was in no way local. Tom Shane wasn't just going to get you a good deal on a ring if you lived in the SF Bay Area, but he was also going to help you clean up if you lived in Santa Cruz, Salinas or Portland.
That may have been slightly unnerving, but nothing compared to the bombshell Teacher Husband dropped on me one day last month when were were riding in the car.
"Have you ever wondered why Tom Shane sounds exactly the same as he did when we were kids?"
OMIGOD! I'M 52!!!!!!! (Or 55, depending on which blog post you consult.) WHY IS TOM SHANE STILL MY FRIEND IN THE DIAMOND BUSINESS AND HIS VOICE DOES NOT SOUND ONE IOTA OLDER????
And this is where I turn to you for help, dear reader. What do you think? They can't be playing old tapes because the wording of the scripts are definitely up to date. (He even mentioned the recent recession the other day for gosh sakes.) It can't be different narrators because they all sound EXACTLY the same. Could there be some fiendish Picture of Dorian Gray-like plot here? I mean, what the helk is going on?
Please send your ideas. All your comments are encouraged and no theory will be considered too wild to be entertained.
--And while you're at it, tell if me if you ever went to Farrells. And don't tell me you never heard of it. I couldn't possibly be the only one who's THAT old.
6 comments:
I loved Farrell's.
And the Tom Shane thing? Disturbing.
Remember, "I made a pig of myself at Farrell's"? That was the bib you got (or maybe a bumper sticker) when you ordered the trough. And I attended two or three zoo birthday parties. I even had a little giraffe for the longest time. :)
Do you suppose Tom Shane has a set of vocal chords at home, aging daily under a bell jar?
I adored Farrell's and remember going a couple rare times as a kid! It was the Chucky Cheese of our era!
I think Charlie actually ordered a pig's trough and got the ribbon for finishing it!!!!
Good times!
By the way, I finally took the time to sign up so I could comment on your blog....it was killing me!
Welcome Anita!! Much Afraid, when I think too long about what Tom must look like now, it scares me...
I grew up loving birthdays at Farrell’s! To this day, when I have ice cream I have a mountain of it … one scoop just won’t do it. Thanks for bringing back great memories. On my birthday, I didn’t like them ringing the bell for me and running around , I loved it on my Brother’s birthday. I quietly wanted my pig’s trough (I think that was what it was called). I also loved the Tin Roof and Rocky Road.
As for Tom Shane, I have worked for Tom for 23 years, and have produced his radio commercials for 19 of those years. If you could listen to the old commercials and a new one side by side, you would hear the difference. Sometimes he will stand up to the mic (minutes after writing the script), record it in one take, and move on to the next topic. He spends a lot of time talking about what he wants to say, but the recording only takes a minute. Anyway, I assure you that it is really Tom Shane.
Last month in the studio Tom’s son pulled out his mobile phone and recorded a video of Tom recording a radio commercial. Here is a link.
www.facebook.com/shanecompany
Margot....I "grew up" at that exact Farrells!! I lived in Foster City as a kid and the San Mateo Farrells was OUR Farrells too!! In high school it was a frequent "pig-out" place for my Church's youth group. Maybe I saw you there??!! BTW, Tony and I picked out the diamond in my wedding ring at that Shane Company store..hahaha!!
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