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“Just Thinking”
The year 1970, school was out; after suffering through another day of parochial prison, we drug our weary selves’ home, grabbed a snack of some cookies and milk and plopped down in front of the TV to mindlessly partake in the mundane. Channel 2 Popeye or Kinko the Clown on Captain Satellite, Beany and Cecil, The Three Stooges and The Little Rascals. If we were fortunate and able to suffer through some pretty fuzzy UHF channels on 20, 36 & 44, we could watch Speed Racer, Simba the White Lion, The Flintstones or Scooby Dew. As the afternoon turned into the early evening, we were able to watch reruns of Hogan’s Heroes, Gilligan's Island, The Munsters or Batman.
After Dad watched the evening news, while simultaneously reading the newspaper the family finished eating dinner at the kitchen table, we would gather around to watch our favorite shows on either ABC, NBC or CBS.
Classic Comedies - The Brady Bunch, The Partridge Family, The Waltons, The Courtship of Eddie’s Father, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, Gomer Pyle, The Mary Tyler Moore Show and All in the Family.
Drama Shows - Marcus Welby, M.D., Gunsmoke, Bonanza, Mission Impossible, Hawaii Five-O, Ironside and Mannix.
Variety Shows - The Ed Sullivan Show, The Carol Burnett Show, The Flip Wilson Show and Laugh-In
Game Shows - The Newlywed Game and The Dating Game
The day ended with the 11:00 news followed by The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.
When we finally persevered and made it to the weekend, there was the Saturday Morning Cartoons - Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! The Pink Panther Show, The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour, The Jetsons, The Harlem Globetrotters, The Flintstones and The Archie Show.
There were very few choices, one TV and all shows had commercials. No pause button if you had to answer the phone or see what was on the other channels, there was no remote to push the pause button on. No VHS, no cable, it was bunny ears or nothing.
The game changed as the years passed, cable networks, video rental, streaming networks, Televisions in every room, with remotes, record a show while watching another, pause it or save it for later.
The reason that I am bringing this up is because we had a little dinner at the house with some of the clan and to spend some time with Baby Beau, afterwards we sat down to watch some TV, 200 channels, plus the major streaming networks, recorded shows, the cable networks and on demand movies and we couldn’t agree on anything to watch.
Have a Happy Labor Day – In 1894 Labor Day became a Federal Holiday, culturally it has come to symbolize the end of summer, kids are back in school and there are plenty of football games to watch on your 200 channels.
On this day in 1992 Brother Kevin passed away - Gone but not forgotten.
Let me know what you think.
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