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After playing guitar and singing for about an hour in this woman's living room, she gets up and says, you know, there were a couple of guys here a while back who were singing and playing instruments, and like you, they said they would be famous one day. They even left me an autograph as sort of a joke. So the lady goes to an end table and pulls out a scrap of paper and hands it to me. I look at the paper, and stunned, I show it to John. What we saw, we were sure was an omen for the future. I'm Jim Pauling, and this is my view from the middle. Back in high school, my friend John Peter and I started writing and singing songs together. He played the guitar, me keyboards. Not sure we were any good, but we thought we were. We were notorious for writing goofy songs. Especially John wrote such classics as the Toilet Overflowed, when You flushed Me out of your Heart, and the cow Pile Song. Together we wrote probably the dumbest song ever in the history of musicdom, and somehow it became popular around the school, almost to the point of having a cult following. John and I were both in the drama group of Garden City East High School in Garden City, Michigan, and one day we were goofing around before rehearsal and playing the piano. On top of this piano, for some reason, was a whole bunch of lollipops and balloons. Our drama teacher slash director, Howard Palmer came in and walked up to the piano and started sifting through the junk and said suckers, suckers, suckers and balloons. As if on cue, John and I burst into song, singing a song we made up as we went along, later called hip You Got It Suckers and Balloons. Pretty soon all the cast and crew at the rehearsal joined in on the chorus, and the director looked rolling his eyes. But from that day forward, Suckers and Balloons was the song that was most requested whenever John and I got together to play. Even when the group of us were to go out for the evening, quite often to Farrell's ice cream parlor, the entire group of us would always annoy the patrons of the entire establishment with a rousing chorus of suckers and balloons. For the moment let's jump ahead about forty years. I'm now living in Florida. Married my brother in law, Jay was a professional musician at the time, and once during a family event I played Suckers and Balloons for him. He and my mother in law loved it, and every time the family got together someone would want me to play it. Jay, who had his own recording studio at his house, was determined that we should get together into a full recording of the song. This dumb song that was made up on the fly forty years earlier in the auditorium of my high school. Well, we did it, and here it is, with my brother in law, Jay Burns, and my wife Melody Burns on backup vocals and yours truly on lead vocals. Here is probably the dumbest song you'll hear this year. Suckers and Balloons written by John Peter and Jim Polling. Suckers, Suckers, Suckers and balloon, Suer Suckers, Suckers and balloons, Suckers, suckers, suckers and balloons, Suckers, suckers, suckers. And the lows. Well, I went. Down to the candice store. In store, I said, please, Dad, it buy me some moods, he said no, So I lord the boom because I wouldn't buy No suckers and balloons and. Sucker suckers, suckers. And balloon sucker suckers, suckers and Blue Summer suckers, suckers and Blues suckers, suckers, suckers and balloons. Well took my kids see a service show. Oh, his eyes were happy, he. Was all glow. Well Sony Spiller dressed up like a baboon. Selling suckers, suckers, suckers and balloons. What else the suckers, suckers, suckers and Blues Summer sucker suckers and Blues sucker sucker suckers and Blues sucker suckers, suckers handloons. Listen now. Both men said, I don't mind you playing songs. It's as long as you do your job. You can do me no wrong. But I'm gonna hit your bone with a broom no if you don't stop playing that stupid suckers and blues, the suckers, suckers, suckers and Blues suckers, suckers, suckers and Blues sucker suckers, suckers and blues sucker suckers suckers, and what we're doing around now suckers, suckers, suckers. And blues. Sucker suckers, suckers and sucker suckers, suckers and blues. Sucker suckers, suckers and bloons, and that ladies and gentlemen was a good run of the song. Heaven help us, John and I didn't stop with suckers and balloons and high school impromptu performances. We were determined to make a go with this music stuff and team up and play in some club somewhere. For the moment, we would just play at our own parties and get togethers. But a mutual friend of ours, studying to be a priest of all things, had an idea for us. He was attending seminary in a little town called Barry, Ontario, in Canada, about fifty or so miles north of Toronto. He suggested we come up to visit him in Barry and then make a short trip to Toronto to scout out some club possibilities. Part of the trip placed us in the home of a friend of our soon to be priest. I don't exactly remember why we visited her that evening, but we did. John had his guitar and we sat in her living room all evening long and played our weird repertoire goofy songs and talked about how we were going to make it big someday. All of a sudden, she said, you know, there were a couple of guys here a wild or were singing and playing instruments, and like you, they said they would be famous one day. They even left me an autograph. It's sort of a joke. Where do I put that thing? So the lady gets up, goes to an end table and pulls out a scrap of paper and hands it to me. I look at the paper, and, stunned, I show it to John. Yep, there they were. The signatures were clear as day, Seals and Crofts. Well, that did it. We were going to be famous. If this wasn't an OMEN, we didn't know what was. Seals and Crofts are big in those days. By the way, Jimmy Seals died in twenty twenty two, and the duos hit Summer Breeze hit the charts again at number ten that year. Unfortunately, the OMEN didn't come to fruition. John in My Music career was off to a flying stop. We still got together and played for fun. When I moved back to Florida, he and I sent tapes back and forth to each other with songs we had written. But like most high school era friends, we drifted apart and I started a career in family, and so did he. There I was in the middle, the possibility of a music career in the horizon, but a career and a family waiting in the wings for me in Florida. For John, it was continuing music writing and art school in addition to a family that eventually included not only children, but grandchildren. I had the inspiration to create this episode when I learned that my longtime music writing buddy, John Peter died in a car crash in February of twenty twenty four. I hope Jesus and the angels all have a sense of humor and a taste for weird songs and are joining in choruses of suckers and balloons on a regular basis. I'm Jim Pauling, and that's my view from the middle. In the next episode, FDR said that December seventh, nineteen forty one, was a date that will live in infamy, but as it turns out, there are many more dates that qualify dates that live an infamy. Next on My View from the Middle