Once again, it has happened.  I was in church last Sunday, listening to my Pastor's sermon when suddenly, more TV theme song lyrics popped into my head.  Was this the Lord our God trying to tell me something with what I know again?

First, the refrain of the theme song from "Good Times":

Keeping your head above water

Making a wave when you can

Temporary layoffs--GOOD TIMES!

Easy credit ripoffs--GOOD TIMES!

Ain't we lucky we got 'em?

GOOD TIMES!!!

Then it got strange.  Up came "When Everyone Cared", the theme song to "Goodtime Girls", a short-lived "Laverne & Shirley"-style sitcom set in Washington, D.C. during World War II:

We all had an Uncle

And his name was Sam

We had to go in

And get him out of a jam

The job wasn't easy

But the burden was shared

Back in the Forties 

When everyone cared

"Goodtime Girls" lasted one season and starred Annie Potts, Lorna Patterson and Georgia Engel as roommates in a boarding house during the Forties' housing crisis.  It also starred Adrian Zmed and Peter Scolari as the male borders.

Then it got really weird.  I heard the them song of the 80s cartoon "Beverly Hills Teens":

Come live your fantasy in Beverly Hills

Come on and make your dreams come true

The kids sure like it up on top of the Hill

So many things that we can do

Fun for me and you

And the people here dance into the night

Everybody here's dressed up out of sight

We're livin' in style--we do it right

In Beverly Hills

Before "The Hills", "Clueless" and both versions of "90210", there was "Beverly Hills Teens", a cartoon about kids with all the trappings of fantasy wealth:  robot servants, a Teen Club with 126 flavors of ice cream and endless shopping sprees on Rodeo Drive.  It was what Archie Comics would be like if all the kids were as rich as Veronica.

Now to try to interpret all this:  The lyrics of "Good Times" are about "makin' it" no matter how bad things get.  The one line from the "Goodtime Girls" theme--"The job wasn't easy but the burden was shared"--is reminding me to reach out to others and stop being such a "lone wolf".  But what about "Beverly Hills Teens"?  The way I see it, the BHTs are just typical cartoon teenagers with the same school, friendship and dating issues as other cartoon teenagers--only with designer labels.  So the message is that you are who you are, regardless of your parents' annual income.  So D.K. Upshaw will always be D.K. Upshaw, no matter how the cash flows.

What will happen next?  What old familiar songs will pop up and inspire me next?  Stay tuned--I sure will!