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[Giraffe]

Remember Highland Appliance stores? There was one on Camp Bowie, just east of the Traffic Circle. I'm sure there were others scattered around the Metroplex because they had plenty of hilarious TV commercials back in the 1980s. I bought a few stereo components there. I remember they had an in-house repair shop. I know that particular store closed many moons ago and became a car-alarm shop, IIRC. The building is still there but I'm not sure what's in it now. The old Levitz furniture building is not far from it. Where else was Highland located, and what is in those buildings now?

If you watched television during the 1980's, it's a sure bet you saw some of Highland's commercials. They were produced professionally for a national market and were very cleverly written. We don't see them anymore because Highland went out of business, but some of those ads are now on YouTube. (Geez! Did a VCR used to cost $188?)

Some of the classics:

* Benjamin Franklin telephones George Washington: "Hey, Georgie, baby, congrats! Highland is going all out to celebrate your birthday!"

* The President visits to buy stuff at Highland during their Presidents' Day Sale. Secret Service agents bodily pick up a senior citizen and carry her off to get her out of the way. Air Force One gets loaded up with electronics and appliances. Says an airport worker to another on the tarmac: "I feel like we've been part of history!"

* A husband and wife parachute out of a plane to beat the crowds into a Highland sale. The husband crashes through the ceiling and falls right in front of the manager and a salesman. They recognize him and ask where his wife is. The husband points to the ceiling but his wife crashes through the ceiling right behind him. He helps pick her up and they walk off. "Honey, the microwaves are over here..."

* But the granddaddy of them all featured Russian sailors in a submarine. The captain sees Highland in his periscope and orders, "Highland! Spliva!" ("Highland! Surface!") They go inside the store and use a phrase book to talk to a salesman: "Hello, you! We require jumbo savings, oh boy!" The salesman points out a stereo: "Well, here's something with 50 watts per channel." Later on, one of the Russian sailors tries to put the make on a middle-aged woman in the store by leaning on a washing machine, kissing her hand, and saying, "50 watts per channel, Babycakes!" She flees in utter confusion.
When I was in high school, whenever I'd be driving around with my friends down Camp Bowie, the first person to see their big pole sign would point to it and shout: "Highland! Spliva!"

[Birdland in Handley]

At the time I heard rumors that Highland was mobbed up. So it's probably untrue. Or completely true. Ain't rumors grand?