His name was Zoom, and he lived on the Moon

Entry posted by Flack March 4, 2007

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Birthdays were a big deal for my sister and I as kids. Every year we invited lots and lots of people over, had cake and ice cream, played lots of games, and did lots of other things. Our birthdays were celebrated with as much gusto as any holiday. We had overnight camping birthday parties in my backyard, and roller skating parties at the local skating rink. All the parties started out at our house, and each year my parents would put on our Captain Zoom birthday records. Each one was personalized with our own birthday greeting.

My name is Zoom,

and I live on the moon,

but I came down to Earth

just to sing you this tune,

'cuz Robbie, it's your birthday, today!

My sister's said "Linda" instead, of course. In hindsight I'm sure there were tens of thousands of kids across the country who had personalized birthday records from Captain Zoom, but no one else in my neighborhood did, which made for a pretty awesome birthday experience. Hearing Captain Zoom sing his two-minute birthday jingle dedicated to me was a highlight, and is a treasured memory to this day.

It's weird, the things that pop into your mind as you stare at an empty Google search bar. I don't know why on earth the memory of that song popped into my head, but it did, and the first return I got was of, you guessed it, Captain Zoom's website.

http://www.captainzoom.com

A sign of the times, Captain Zoom now delivers his birthday greetings from the Moon via casette ($10), CD ($12) or DVD ($18) -- or, if you want to save on shipping, Captain Zoom will directly e-mail you an MP3 ($11). It may sound a little high for a two minute song, but then again almost three decades later, I hold those two minutes close to my heart. And, apparently Captain Zoom's been pretty busy in his lunar recording studio -- the website boasts over 3,000 unique names to choose from.

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