Another piece of shared Chicago culture passed away this week. Even though I never lived in the Windy City, I watched plenty of WGN like millions of others through cable TV. The Empire Carpet commercials were prevalent on Sundays whenever we caught the old Lone Ranger and Cisco Kid shows or Family Classics with Frazier Thomas. I had no idea this guy was more than the spokesman, he was also the genius behind the tune!
It’s amazing how the store’s catch got embedded in your brain. The darned thing is like a litmus test to check the genuineness of Midwestern DNA. I remember Paul (a born and bred Southsider) knowing it by heart which was obvious. I’m was more shocked when I found a couple people around Austin who knew the main hook of “5-8-8, 2-300, EM-piiiiiiiiiiire!” and they’d never set foot in Chicago.