Goat Boys and Fabulous Flippers

The summer of '64 found me wasting my youth in a truly dreadful "Bible Camp" in Western Wisconsin. Lots of praying, Bible studies and lame craft classes. Bad food in the cafeteria and freezing water in the lake. No boats, canoes, trails or recreational facilities. After a couple of days of this, I would spend most of my free time reading on my bunk in the dormitory. At night, after the slept-like-a-log counselor started snoring, all sorts of hi-jinks would ensue, mostly involving "Harley"- a bleached blond "dude" who would torment the younger campers. Harley had a catch-phrase. This was a new concept to me- the idea that you need not communicate in language, all you had to say was your "word" and everyone would start laughing. In the case of Harley, the phrase was "eeeaahh", spoken in the fashion of a braying goat.

Being young and impressionable I soon picked up on this affection. When I tried it at home, my mother threw a justified fit and made certain that I never spoke in that fashion again. I had forgotten all about this until a few weeks ago, when I ran across the video of "The Fabulous Flippers", a show band from Lawrence Kansas who were the top draw in mid-western ballrooms for several years in the mid-sixties. Watch the video, it is truly amazing:



And there it is: The goat bray! At 1:26, 2:30 and 3:59, exactly as I remembered!