Big Money
Dad came home one evening with $750 cash which he counted out on the dining room table. Dunno how he came about possession of the money (Dad was not a bank robber in those days) but we watched and listened to him count it with great interest, for that was an astounding amount of money to us. I had never seen $100 in my life before, let alone $750.
Bugs
Mr. Wilson (our neighbor and my best friend John’s father) had a riding lawn mower which we thought was pretty cool. It had a very special feature which was the release of large clouds of bug spray upon demand of the operator of the mower, for the purpose of killing all the insects around the yard. Mr. Wilson would do just that when he was done mowing, which we (John, Dennis, and I) really liked because we would run through the big clouds. And being the late 60’s I’m sure whatever it was has been banned and taken off the market. Golly, I wonder what lasting effect that had on us.
B&W to Color
I forget how old I was – 10 or 11 or 12 or thereabouts when our family first acquired a color TV. After umpteen years of black, white, and grayscale, the NBC (National Broadcasting Co) peacock logo was there in vivid color:
It was amazing stuff, particularly to us kids, to see the colored parts of the Wizard of Oz in actual color. That, and a plethora of cartoons, regular TV shows, and movies that were now in full color. It was like a whole new world.
Speaking of TV, we (at the time) had access to 4 channels: 8, 10, 13, and UHF which we had a special antenna for. Eventually there were 2 stations accessible via UHF. For a time the color TV was in my parents room and the B&W TV went upstairs to mine & Dennis’s room, which was nice in a way to have a TV for ourselves, though it wasn’t color. It wasn’t easy to get out of bed for school during the week, but come Saturday morning Dennis & I were up at 6am to catch Woody Woodpecker followed by a parade of TV shows such as Pink Panther, Looney Toons (Bugs Bunny, et al), Johnny Quest, the Monkees, and a bunch of others I have long forgotten. We wrapped up Saturday morning TV with American Bandstand around noontime.
The Sunday paper was a treat for 2 reasons: the comics (a.k.a. “the funnies”) and the TV Guide which gave us the coming week’s schedule of TV shows. Though VCRs had been invented they weren’t yet available for home use, and even if they were they would have been far too expensive for us to buy. So, what was in the TV Guide was what we watched, or not if the lineup was lousy. Sunday evening had a great set of shows back then: Wonderful World of Disney, Mr. Terrific followed by Captain Nice (2 half hour long shows that never made it big but I really liked), Laugh-In which we watched as a family. Looking back on it, Laugh-In had some questionable material for us kids but my parents didn’t seem to care. There were particular shows that came on only once a year and you made sure to circle it in the TV Guide so you wouldn’t forget to be in front of the TV at the appointed time. For example The Wizard of Oz, Help! (the Beatles), Ben Hur (around Easter) and of course the Christmas trio of Charlie Brown Christmas, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and Frosty the Snowman.
Jeepers, the times have changed since then, much of it driven by technology.
It was amazing stuff, particularly to us kids, to see the colored parts of the Wizard of Oz in actual color. That, and a plethora of cartoons, regular TV shows, and movies that were now in full color. It was like a whole new world.
Speaking of TV, we (at the time) had access to 4 channels: 8, 10, 13, and UHF which we had a special antenna for. Eventually there were 2 stations accessible via UHF. For a time the color TV was in my parents room and the B&W TV went upstairs to mine & Dennis’s room, which was nice in a way to have a TV for ourselves, though it wasn’t color. It wasn’t easy to get out of bed for school during the week, but come Saturday morning Dennis & I were up at 6am to catch Woody Woodpecker followed by a parade of TV shows such as Pink Panther, Looney Toons (Bugs Bunny, et al), Johnny Quest, the Monkees, and a bunch of others I have long forgotten. We wrapped up Saturday morning TV with American Bandstand around noontime.
The Sunday paper was a treat for 2 reasons: the comics (a.k.a. “the funnies”) and the TV Guide which gave us the coming week’s schedule of TV shows. Though VCRs had been invented they weren’t yet available for home use, and even if they were they would have been far too expensive for us to buy. So, what was in the TV Guide was what we watched, or not if the lineup was lousy. Sunday evening had a great set of shows back then: Wonderful World of Disney, Mr. Terrific followed by Captain Nice (2 half hour long shows that never made it big but I really liked), Laugh-In which we watched as a family. Looking back on it, Laugh-In had some questionable material for us kids but my parents didn’t seem to care. There were particular shows that came on only once a year and you made sure to circle it in the TV Guide so you wouldn’t forget to be in front of the TV at the appointed time. For example The Wizard of Oz, Help! (the Beatles), Ben Hur (around Easter) and of course the Christmas trio of Charlie Brown Christmas, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and Frosty the Snowman.
Jeepers, the times have changed since then, much of it driven by technology.
Holidays
I loved holidays – Thanksgiving and Christmas in particular because there were always hordes of people, at least it seemed so to a little kid with parents, 6 siblings plus girlfriends, boyfriends, and, in a couple cases, spouses, plus a couple nieces. I don’t recall anything in particular that made it enjoyable to me – it was the laughing, the talking, the funning, the eating, the being together that defined us as a family, at least for me. And we always had a box of Ribbon Candy sitting around during the holidays, but it never was completely consumed. Or even half eaten, as I recall. The stuff was very sweet in a strange way. A small piece sufficed, even for us kids.
Some years later I remember several holidays where it was just Dad, Mom, Dennis, and me. Everybody else had moved out and moved on. Seemed strange and somewhat hollow. I missed us all being together.
BTW, the last time all 7 of us “kids” were together was in 2010. Roger’s cancer had returned and we were certain his days were numbered, so we all met in the Outer Banks, NC, and it turned out we were correct as he died a couple years later, and subsequently my brother Mike a couple years after that.
Some years later I remember several holidays where it was just Dad, Mom, Dennis, and me. Everybody else had moved out and moved on. Seemed strange and somewhat hollow. I missed us all being together.
BTW, the last time all 7 of us “kids” were together was in 2010. Roger’s cancer had returned and we were certain his days were numbered, so we all met in the Outer Banks, NC, and it turned out we were correct as he died a couple years later, and subsequently my brother Mike a couple years after that.
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