Boop oop ee doop!

I remember watching Betty Boop cartoons when I was a little girl but it wasn't until my 18th birthday that I received my first piece of genuine Boop memorabilia. This mug was a gift from my best friend Bear and it's one of two pieces that mean the world to me.

The other is a keyring my dad gave me just months before he passed away. It's still carrying my keys and sometimes when I'm driving the little feet catch in my hosiery as if to remind me that it's still there.

There's other ones as well... like the cute Boop tin from my friend Nicola, the quilt my mother in law made from Boop fabric, and the little Boop doll that was a gift from my goddaughter Taylah which hangs on my bedroom door.

But there is one that comes without the usual feeling of affection and it hit me like a brick when I opened a draw in the spare room tonight... the Betty Boop Air Freshener (with natural fragrances apparently). I first saw them in the auto section of Big W and I thought it looked nifty and smelled ok and just because it was Boop (and not because my car stunk) I bought it. That night I hung it in Hugo (our car, so named because 'Hugh goes where we go') and toddled off to bed.

The next morning was a shocker. Hugo smelled SO BAD George and I rode all the way to work with our heads out the windows so we didn't choke. Did I mention the natural fragrances? So we binned the Boop and vowed never EVER to buy another.

A few weeks later I was visiting my sister in Hobart and she and the kids had an early birthday present for me... a set of Betty Boop windscreen shades and a matching Betty Boop Air Freshener. "Oh wow! Wherever do you find these things?" I asked wondrously (but secretly dreading the stink that would permeate my clothes on the way home).

Now this might have been a great anecdote to share when I'm invited to guest speak at a Betty Boop convention (in my dreams), but it didn't end there.

Shortly after I returned from Hobart, a colleague came bounding into my office grinning with excitement, package in hand, and said, "You'll never guess what I found for you in Big W!"

Ya wanna make a bet?