Rant #2,928: Happiness Is Havin'

 Happiness is havin’ …
 
A pool that works, at least kinda works …
 
I went to the pool store for about the sixth time yesterday, and while my pool’s water is not crystal clear like it should be, its cloudiness won’t stop us fro using the pool this July 4th weekend.
 
We were told that the pool is the way it is this year—and evidently, many other backyard pools are, too—because we had a relatively mild winter, and it upset the pool structure, as algae was able to grow in an inordinate fashion due to the warmth, and thus, the water that we put into the pool months later simply wasn’t right.
 
We were also using the wrong shock, as we should have been using the liquid shock rather than the powder option.
 
I know all of this sounds like baloney—and it very well may be just that--but after a few more shock treatments, we have been told that the pool can be used, and we will give it a few more days, and we will be jumping in by the holiday.
 
Happiness is havin’ …
 
The New York Yankees continuing to win, setting records and new benchmarks seemingly with every game.
 
With yesterday’s win against the lowly Oakland Athletics, they are on pace to win about 120 games with their current 56-20 mark.
 
If this pace continues, the only complete satisfaction is for the team to get through the playoffs to the World Series, and win it all in October.
 
It is not putting the cart before the horse.
 
They can win 120 games, which would be a record for a regular season, and be completely forgotten if they don’t win it all.
 
If they don’t win the championship, the team will be thought of as a terrible failure.
 
I never thought that they were this good this year, but I am fully in for the ride, but they will have to win the World Series for this team to be put up there with the great ones.
 
Let’s see what happens as the season plays out.
 
Happiness is havin’ …
 
A newspaper that not only brings you the news of the day, but coupons too!
 
With all the dreck in the news lately highlighting all the division in our country—or at least, helping to stoke that division—I was excited to bring in the newspaper this morning and go through the usual supermarket ads for the holiday weekend …

And then, stumble upon sheets of coupons for both Burger King and Wendy’s.
 
Along with seemingly everything else, fast food prices have gone sky high, and it is nice to see that I now have some coupons to use to keep the price down a little bit.
 
My family and I eat fast food on the weekends, or at least eat not-prepared-in-our house food on the weekends, so this came as a pleasant surprise after weeks of having no coupons at all for such restaurants.
 
It will certainly make the Whopper and the chicken nuggets taste a bit better when we are able to use the coupons to help pay for them.
 
Happiness is havin’ …
 
A record with the song “Happiness Is Havin’.”
 
This song was recorded by several acts in the mid-1960s, including Bobby Sherman, but the one I have been looking for is by an obscure act called Beaver and the Trappers …
 
Which would be an act that would be even more obscure if its roster wasn’t so well known.
 
After Jerry Mathers’ show “Leave It To Beaver” left the airwaves in 1963, the young star did quite a bit of things, including serving in the military during the Vietnam War era and collect residuals from his show, probably the only TV series in history which never went off the air, going straight from first-run shows to reruns (even “I Love Lucy” took a break from the airwaves briefly).
 
And the residuals continued to roll in, even to this day as I understand it, because Mathers parents designed a contract that pretty much put the younger Mathers as the owner of the show, and the legacy of the sitcom has been going for this entire time.
 
Anyway, Mathers put out a record or two while the show was still on, without much acclaim, and a few years after the series was off the air, he had his own rock and roll group named Beaver and the Trappers, which also featured “Leave It To Beaver” alum Richard Correll (whose father was one of the featured white voices on the “Amos and Andy” radio show).
 
The act put out at least one single, “Happiness Is Havin’ with “In Misery” as the B side.
 
The record flopped—except in I believe Alaska, where it was a hit—and it faded from view or memory.
 
Since none of Mathers’ records were very popular, they are pretty hard to find in their original 45 RPM versions, although they have turned up in various compilations.
 
In 2018, a small label re-released the Beaver and the Trappers single, and at long last, I finally got it, using the gift card my son got me for Father’s Day.
 
The song is a good one, as it was used in I believe a cigarette commercial—in yet another version—during the mid-1960s period, but like the Sherman version, Beavers' version was a flop.
 
But I am glad that I have it, and that hole that I filled in my record collection is not there anymore.
 
Happiness is havin’ …
 
All of these things, a great family, and my health.
 
None of these things I spoke about here matter very much if you don’t have these other things, and I am lucky enough to have them all.
 
Yes, I am a really lucky guy.