Walking down Memory Lane in TV Land

Riddle me this: I am first in earth, second in heaven, I appear two times in a week.  You can only see me once in a year, although I'm in the middle of the sea.  What am I?  
                                                                     The Riddler

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!

All Things Bright and Beautiful

Your attitude is like a box of crayons that color your world.  Constantly color your picture gray, and your picture will always be bleak.  Try adding some bright colors to the picture by including humor, and your picture begins to lighten up.  -Allen Klein

I loved working with this week's theme, BRIGHT, which I'm sure is no surprise to my friends.  I've always been attracted to colors, the brighter the better - no neutrals or pastels for this girl!  And since I was still feeling 'not fine' this week, it was good to be on the lookout for things that brightened my days.  The quote I chose really hit home with me - good advice, and I needed to hear it, and follow it - this week.

I didn't get out much again this week - poor Crockett only got a few good walks, although we did play a lot of fetch on the deck - so all of my photos are from inside the house or inside the neighborhood.  I'm ready to get back to normal, and thankfully, I'm headed that direction now.  I ventured out to the doctor on Tuesday and then got to go back on Wednesday to have labs done.  I learned that I had had the flu, and that I should get used to my friend Mr. Cough as he will be with me for a few more weeks.  Ugh.

I had to laugh when I went to the doctor.  Since I didn't have an appointment, I got worked in, so I was cognizant of the need to be on time.  So of course there were issues, even with my advance planning and best intentions.  First, Crockett didn't get the 'mom's in a hurry' memo, and I didn't allow for the extra time to open and shut the garage door manually (our opener has been broken for a few weeks) and I forgot that the bridge to Tiki is being repaired, so it's one lane with a stop light.  Red, of course.  Thankfully it's a short bridge!  As I went over the causeway to Galveston Island, I neglected to notice that the train bridge was down, which would have indicated that my planned route was going to be blocked by a train.  Oblivious to the impending delay, I turned left only to be stopped by what was one of the longest and slowest trains I've ever seen!  So I u-turned and tried another path, which sadly was also blocked by the same train.  Oh, the agony!  Finally I found a clear path and was only late by five minutes, but I still felt bad.  As in most places across the country, clinics and ERs are full of flu-sufferers.  If you haven't had a flu shot (I got one in the fall), get one now!

We had more crazy weather across the country this week.  And oh, those mudslides in California!  Those were horrific and I feel so bad for those affected.  More ice and snow for the northeast and the middle of the country, and even down here in Texas we had more days below freezing.  On the day the cold front came in, we had a beautiful bright sunset and I could watch the front move in.  The north wind has blown so much water out of the bay that almost all of the oyster beds have been visible.  The water level is probably 3 or 4 feet below normal!  It's due to snow again next week - if it does, that will be only the third time that it has snowed three times in one season here, and the last time it happened, I was in high school!  Here's hoping that wherever you are, you're safe and protected from the elements.

I had rallied enough by Friday to make it to my massage appointment, which got cancelled last week when both Trish (my massage therapist, who is FANTASTIC) and I were sick.  Trish knew exactly what to do to make me feel better.  I am so grateful to have a good massage therapist right here on Tiki!  I should have taken a photo of Trish, as appointments with her are definitely bright spots in my life!  Since I was feeling almost human again, Rex and I went to see Darkest Hour - such a great movie!  Gary Oldman was a convincing Churchill, and the whole cast was excellent.  Worth a watch!

My weekend has been full of basketball and football, with my teams winning sometimes....I'm sad to report that I haven't worked up the energy to finish taking down Christmas (so I still have that brightness around me!) but that has got to happen!!  I may need to pretend it's not a three day weekend...  Oh - the other fun thing this weekend - we started watching The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel on Amazon.  Fun and funny!  But I can't let the remaining Santas get addicted to it or I will never get them back in the closet!

Best to you this week - keep looking for the bright spots and add them yourself if needed!

Jan

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