When you need it bad, we've got it good! Florida!

Remember the old Florida tourism commercial?

When I started this blog, I was living in New Jersey. Over the years, I got sick of jobs that didn't pay very well, real estate prices that started at $350,000, yearly homeowner taxes in the double digits and living 90 minutes away from a beach. I had been laid off for like the third time in three years and my husband was facing an impending layoff after ten years with his company. We finally realized we needed to make a big change. 

We gave away or sold everything we owned, filled our two Hondas with whatever was left and moved to Florida. In February, we celebrated one year in The Sunshine State and have never been happier. We're closing on our first home in less than a week (fingers crossed) and have wonderful   jobs earning decent salaries. We paid off a nice chunk of New Jersey credit card debt and still managed to save enough dough to put toward a house. 

I know this blog is about the past and fun memories, so in an effort to stick to my subject matter ... Here's where I'm going with this post ... This morning, I was in the kitchen fixing us fried egg whites, coffee and toast, when the lyrics to an old TV commercial filled my head. I couldn't quite figure out if I had made this ad up, or if it was real. 

"When you need it bad, we've got it good, when you need it bad, come to Florida! 'Cuz we've got it good here." I asked hubs about the jingle. He's a few years younger than me ... and had no recollection of it.

Well, I Googled it of course and it's real! It's a tourism TV ad that ran in the late 1980s and early 1980s to promote tourism in Florida. The ad, created by Mike Sloan Advertising agency in Miami, aired heavily in Northern and Midwestern states. With it's catchy jingle and winter stock imagery, the campaign was crazy successful in recruiting visitors to the state. 

I knew I wasn't dreaming. It's funny because although we're not tourists escaping the winter cold, the slogan kinda rings true for us ... We needed a change bad and now we've got it pretty good. 

Check out the Florida commercial. If you grew up in the Northeast or Midwest in the late '70s and '80s, it should look familiar to you.

HUB TV Channel Airs 1980s Classics

We've Moved!

If we're tight on Facebook, you know we've recently relocated from North Jersey to the Clearwater / St. Petersburg, Florida area. My hubs found a new job and I found hub. If you're unfamiliar with this amazing cable network, let me explain...

What No ID?

When I signed up for Brighthouse Networks, the cable TV carrier in our new lo-caysh, the first question I asked was, "What channel is Discovery ID?" Over the past few years, I seem to have developed an obsession for forensics and true crime.  Hot damn! It turns out Discovery ID channel is unavailable in Florida. My personal theory is it would be a bad influence on viewers. Let's face it, Florida is the "Number Six State for Crime in America." Scary, right? 

i love hub!

Last night, we stumbled upon hub. Where the hell have I been that I've never noticed this awesome 80s channel back home? We had the same cable plan in Jerz. Anyway, hub, a joint venture between Discovery and Hasbro, focuses on kids and family television programming. Hub replaced the Discovery Kids TV channel almost a year ago. Hello? I was too busy watching Discovery ID!

The hub channel was launched in October, 2010 and has an incredible line-up of evening programming for us 1980s freaks. Check out the evening schedule featuring Happy Days, Wonder Years, Doogie Howser, M.D., Family Ties and Laverne & Shirley. How awesome is that? Hoping they add Silver Spoons and Growing Pains at some point. You know how much I love my Jason Bateman and Kirk Cameron.