Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Be Like Ike

The other night, Mr. Z was telling me about the report he was writing for school about Dwight D. Eisenhower. He was a little bummed because he would have preferred to write about Harry S. Truman, his favorite president. It's weird, ever since the boy was like, one, he's had this bizarre fixation with Harry Truman. He even named this little wooden acrobatic toy Harry S. Truman when he was about two. I found out later that it all stemmed from this U.S. Presidents placemat my parents had that he used to use. When I looked at the pictures on the placemat, I realized that Truman's coloring was really over-saturated for some reason and his whole head had this glowing, orange quality to it. He looked like some sort of Oompah-Loompah General. Apparently, that's very appealing to a one-year-old.

But I digress.

So, Mr. Z is feeding me various tidbits about Eisenhower when he says:

MR. Z: Hey dad, have you ever heard the phrase, "I like Ike?"

ME: Sure, that was Eisenhower's slogan, right?

MR. Z: How did you know?!


I went on to explain that, while I may seem like an utter chucklehead, I actually did learn a couple things while in school. He was dubious, but he continued to riff on the "I like Ike" phrase until he eventually came up with:

MR. Z: How 'bout "I like Ike's bike?"

ME: Hey, that would make a great t-shirt!


See, I like to make 'wacky' t-shirt transfers for the kidlets because... well, because I guess I'm too old to wear them myself and I really hate my kids walking around with goddamn 'Old Navy' plastered all over their chests. I've made them Ramones shirts, They Might be Giants shirts, Bjork shirts -- basically shirts that scream, "I have no idea who is on my shirt but isn't my dad fucking cool and ironic for making this for me?!"

So I've been working on the 'Ike' shirt and I think I'm getting close. Here's what I have so far... let me know your thoughts (you can click on it to make it magically grow):



He looks so proud of his Stingray, doesn't he? Although it looks like that banana seat is gonna jam his Elaine Nardo's straight up to his epaulettes. And I'm pretty sure that if he works up a sweat peddling, them woolen slacks of his sure ain't going to breathe very well. It doesn't matter, though. He's Dwight D. Eisenhower, and the "D" stands for "Dang, Mamie! Check out this sweet ride!"

7 comments:

Cazzie!!! said...

Cool idea Crabbydad...how do you make a transfer though? Can you buy some kinda blank transfer paper or something like that? I'd love to put some of my comics onto my kids t-shirts, especialy the girls', thye love my drawings.
Cheers Cazzie!!!
P.S. Another slogan, "I like Ike's Bike!"
or, "Be like Ike, ride a bike!"
Sounds like our "Life Be In It " campaign we had here in the 1980's to get lazy people off their asses and get fit.

crabbydad said...

Yeah, Cazz, there's paper you can buy for your inkjet printer that you just print on, cut out and then iron on. Epson, Avery and HP all make some. Listen to me... I sound like Martha Fucking Stewart!

Arnie said...

Can you iron on to a color t-shirt or is it wise to just use white?

crabbydad said...

Oh, Arnold! They have different papers for different kinds of shirts -- one for whites, one for colors.

Wow, I guess things really haven't changed since the 50s, have they?

Cazzie!!! said...

PMSL perhaps ur right there chocky...my uncle kept this bloke in business in the 1960's and 1970's with getting his EVERYTHING transferred onto...his shoes (canvas runners) his tops, his pants, his t's...in football player's numbers and lots of blue stars...was the fad then..maybe we can recycle the old fad through our kids now..hehe

Anonymous said...

I didn't know Martha Stewarts middle name was Fucking.......

crabbydad said...

Actually, Jello, her maiden name was originally "Fawking," of the Connecticut Fawkings. But when she was in prison, she changed it to "Fucking" because it gave her more cell cred.