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Sometimes just hearing the name of an entertainer, a guy you probably haven't even seen in a while, can fill your head with fluffy nostalgia.
Think of this particular name: Bobby Goldsboro.
Big smile, Southern accent, brown hair, acoustic guitar. Already you're back in 1973 sitting in front of the TV listening to Goldsboro sing "And honey I miss you and I'm being good. And, I'd love to be with you if only I could."
For three years he sang to you during his syndicated series. Now you remember him, right? He's the guy who crooned Honey and Watchin' Scotty Grow.
Goldsboro, now 56, has been producing, writing, creating, singing and fishing in Florida for the past 13 years.
Goldsboro returned to his home state from Nashville, where he spent 28 years working on his recording career. He grew up in the North Florida town of Marianna and now lives on a 120-acre ranch in Ocala, so close to a swamp that visitors need a four-wheel drive to get to his place, he says.
Among other things, he has been scoring music for television and movies, writing and playing music for an audio version of a novel and creating a PBS show for children.
The guy has been doing a heck of a lot more than just watching Scotty grow.
His main project for the past few years has been a children's program called The Swamp Critters of Lost Lagoon. Goldsboro writes the scripts and music, plays all the instruments and puts voices to all the characters. He tapes the show at Tampa's WEDU-Ch. 3 studios.
WEDU has been the stomping ground for other children's shows as well. Dudley the Dragon and The Reppies were presented to national PBS stations by WEDU. The Huggabug Club has been filming at the Tampa studios for two years.
"I get up every day, and this sounds like baloney but, and I'm doing exactly what I want to do," Goldsboro said recently while visiting WEDU for a pledge drive appearance. "If I hit the lottery for $100-million nothing would change."
Goldsboro had more than 25 hit singles between 1962 and 1973, which meant he had to dedicate more time to performing than to his first love - writing.
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