THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: A thirst to prove my memory was still there, 49 years later

Back before Idaho would become home, during a time when the Gem State was just a place on the other side of the Washington border that we would visit occasionally, I remember watching a commercial that mentioned a place somewhere in Idaho. 

I’d never heard of the place, but it was Idaho, so it grabbed my attention.  

I remembered it was an RC Cola commercial, and it talked about something happening “in Cascade, Idaho.” 

“Me and my RC, me and my RC ... “ the commercial continued. 

I eventually moved to Idaho a few years later, and soon after that I got to work Cascade, Idaho into my writing, usually because Clark Fork High, one of the schools we covered while at the Daily Bee, was playing Cascade in something at state, probably volleyball or basketball. 

And I would think about that commercial again. 

YEARS LATER, on a few occasions, I would interview people who had just come from Cascade, Idaho, or who had spent some time there at some point in their careers. 

During the interview, I would casually mention that commercial, thinking that might trigger some story from them — maybe they were an extra in the commercial, or knew someone associated with it. 

Nothing. 

So now I’m starting to wonder, “did this commercial really happen? Or did I just dream about it once, and it somehow stuck.” 

So a few years ago, I went to the internet and Googled it — because as my oldest brother Jim likes to say, “you can find anything on the internet.” 

But I couldn’t find this. 

No mention of RC Cola in Cascade, Idaho. 

Nothing. 

So I’m bummed. 

RECENTLY, I talked with someone who had spent a few years along the way in Cascade, Idaho.  

By now, I was determined to prove this commercial really existed. 

So I went to the internet again. 

I typed in “me and my RC Cascade Idaho.” 

And, voila! 

There it was! 

Up popped “RC Cola 1977 TV commercial”, and someone had posted it on YouTube a few years back. 

Of course I had to click on it and watch it a few (dozen) times — for journalistic purposes, of course. 

The commercial starts out with a man, woman and hound dog in a car, presumably traveling the highways of Idaho, and ends with them pulling up to an old store, and the man drinking a bottle of RC Cola.

The jingle with the commercial goes something like this:  

“Monday at the office 

They’ll notice I’m not there 

They’ll look around, unplug my phone and take my favorite chair 

I started out a day ago on a life they’ll never know 

I bought myself this general store in Cascade, Idaho 

Me and my RC 

Me and my RC 

Cause what’s good enough for other folks 

Ain’t good enough for me and my RC ..." 

FINALLY!

So, I wasn’t crazy after all these years — at least about that. 

Even though, as the internet says, the “general store” the family pulled up to during the commercial wasn’t a real store, as it turns out.  

It was “a fictionalized depiction for the ad,” though the ad was filmed in Cascade. 

That’s OK. 

Even if the store wasn’t real, the commercial, as it turned out, was quite real. 

THAT GOT me to thinking about other times Idaho, or a city in Idaho, got a mention like that. 

Mostly, what came to mind was music. 

Lynyrd Skynyrd reminds us on occasion when “it’s 8 o’clock in Boise, Idaho ... “ from their hit “What’s Your Name.” 

Probably only Harry Chapin diehards would remember that he mentioned Boise, Idaho, once, in his song “WOLD.”  

“I am the morning DJ, at WOLD-D-D-D (O-L-D). 

Playin’ all the hits for you, wherever you may be ... " 

In the end, a little bummed that general store in Cascade, Idaho, that we saw in the commercial wasn’t a real general store after all. 

But finally finding out that 49-year-old RC commercial about “me and my RC ... in Cascade, Idaho” was indeed real after all these years more than made up for that. 

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 208-664-8176, Ext. 1205, or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @CdAPressSports.