The Riddler
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| Week 11: E is for... |
Here's hoping you had a wonderful Easter and Holy Week or are celebrating Passover this week. We spent a lovely afternoon with friends on Tiki on Easter Sunday and met lots of people we didn't know (we were not in our little canal section of the island!). I'm grateful for holidays and celebrations that bring people together and for friends that include others. Last year, Kim and Blake were home for Easter and shared the news of their impending parenthood (!), but this year, Kim, Blake, Morgan, and I will be headed to North Carolina in a couple of weeks, so we opted not to get together for the holiday.
It does make me realize how much life can change in a year, though! Last year, just knowing Kim would be having a baby was an exciting prospect, but it was still such a nebulous concept. This year, it's very real! Morgan celebrated her first Easter and she is adjusting to day care and to sleeping all night in her own room. Before we know it, she'll be taking her first steps! I can't wait to see her and her cousins and their parents. Color me Happy!!
Given that this week's Day2Day theme was "E is for...", I'm sure you had no trouble answering my riddle. It made me laugh, and it reminded me of watching the old Batman show when I was a kid. That got me thinking about TV shows of my childhood, and it also made me think about how TV was going to make us all go blind and stupid. "Don't sit so close to the TV!" was something I suspect all of us heard back then, as we crowded around the (ONLY) TV in the house to see its fuzzy black and white picture. Daddy would adjust the rabbit ear antennas, trying to get better reception. When Wonderful World of Disney came on on Sunday evening, Kim and I would swear we could see colors in the fireworks falling down around the castle. Doubtful....
Of course, Kim and I didn't have much say into what programs we watched, as Mom and Dad were in control of that. And when you only have one TV and it only had three channels, there really weren't too many choices. Daddy's favorite shows were Gunsmoke, Bonanza, and Combat!, while Mom was partial to the Loretta Lynn Show and the show they both loved was Perry Mason. Daddy also loved watching the Porter Wagoner Show (with Dolly Parton), which Kim and I HATED! I have to laugh now, as my whole family loves country music these days. But those outfits Porter used to wear! And Miss Dolly's hair and 'bosoms'! That makes me laugh, too - you never hear that word any more.
Kim and I watched Captain Kangaroo (when we were young) and Mighty Mouse, and our all-time favorite show was Leave It to Beaver. We both still watch it every chance we get! In the evenings, before Daddy got to watch the news, we watched Cactus Pete and his cartoons - Deputy Dawg, Clutch Cargo, and Beanie and Cecil. Our local TV channel had Romper Room (we loved it when Miss Emily said she 'saw' us by calling our name out (Romper, bomper, stomper, boo...) and The Popeye Show (you could be on the show and sit on little bleachers and watch the cartoons on a little monitor) and then when we were in junior high and high school, you could be on Dance Party on Friday afternoons.
Many of mom's friends watched their afternoon 'stories' (soap operas) and I remember watching All My Children (with a very young Erica Kane!) on the days that I came home for lunch. Now there's something you never hear about any more! We lived only a couple of blocks from our elementary school, so we could either eat in the cafeteria (for 25 cents), or bring our lunch (2 cents for milk), or if you lived close by, you could go home and eat lunch with your mom. And watch the soaps...
As we got older, we loved Batman, the Monkees, and Rowan and Martin's Laugh In. We still watched what was now Disney's Wonderful World of Color (and we finally had more than one TV and we did get to watch in LIVING COLOR! Mom and Dad would watch the Ed Sullivan Show on Sunday nights (after Bonanza) and we laughed at the way Ed Sullivan always had a 'really good shew' for us. They also really liked Jack Benny, who drove me crazy. Daddy thought Red Skelton was hysterical, but I didn't like him because he got tickled at himself. We all laughed at I Love Lucy and then later at Carol Burnett.
I'm not sure what took me down this path - it wasn't what I set out to write about, but I've had fun thinking about television, back in the day. I'm sure I've left out some of my favorite shows (Huckleberry Hound, Top Cat, Woody Woodpecker, and the Flintstones!! And The Andy Griffith Show!) so help me out by commenting with some of your faves.
Have a fabulous week - I'm looking forward to spending some time in my hometown and showing it off to friends who've never been there. Crossing my fingers for better weather than what is forecast...
Jan
And The Jetsons! And my grandfather thought Gomer Pyle, USMC was the funniest show ever!
Oh, Jan, you certainly brought back memories for me! We didn't have a TV until I was 10, but my sister and I took baton lessons around the corner on Saturday mornings and would always go early so we could watch the Howdy Doody Show. And occasionally, we'd go over to Grandma's house after school and we could watch The Mickey Mouse Club - and yes, I still remember all the songs... Not just "Who's the leader of the club that's made for you and me.." but also "Today is Tuesday, you know what that means... We're going to have a special guest star day.." or "Anything can happen day, today..."
ReplyDeleteAfter we got our TV, we were never in charge of what to watch, except on Sunday afternoon when my parents took a nap and we could watch the Lone Ranger in the afternoon.
And when I was married and could watch anything - I would watch the Merv Griffen variety show in the late afternoon when I got home from work and was fixing dinner. Arthur Treacher was his co-host, and later started the Arthur Treacher fish restaurants.
And the soaps - we went to Florida for a week with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law. My husband and my sister-in-law both watched the soaps (all half-hour shows in the afternoon) and we watched The Doctors, Days of our Lives, and Another World every afternoon when it was too hot to be outside and they would fill me in on who was related to whom, which characters were nice and which were conniving, and just as I thought I knew what was going on, the show was over...
Such good memories you've started! Thanks!