TV Time

 Growing up we only had one TV and until the mid 60’s it was in black and white. We only received six channels and on a good day maybe seven, there was ABC, CBS and NBC along with channel 11 and 5 which were local stations out of New York City and the NET station, which was a precursor to PBS. There was no remote control or vhs or dvr, so if you missed a show you missed it. Among the kids it was first come first serve also known as I am bigger than you so I get the TV. In our family you could only watch an hour of TV at night. To be honest most of the time in the summer time we would be outside playing late until the evening when my mother would call us in. By the time we got inside it was time for a bath and then bed. There were some shows I remember growing up that either came on before school or on Saturday morning. The first one was Romper Room which came on during lunch time and you would watch it before you went to kindergarten or coming home. Early in the morning before school there was Captain Kangaroo. Then on Saturday morning you had comedies like the Three Stooges or the Little Rascals and action adventures like My Friend Flicka. Slowly those shows got replaced by cartoons. My favorite cartoon when I was really little was Mighty Mouse, a super mouse who would protect the town of Mouseville from various villains including Oil Can Harry a Cat. I also loved watching Richochet Rabbit and Droop-along on the Magilla Gorilla Show. And if you grew up at that time who can forget the Huckleberry Hound Show, with Huckleberry Hound and Yogi Bear and Pixie and Dixie All these shows were simple and you knew who was going to win and loose. The animations was crude and simple, but they all had great theme songs and whenever I hear one on Youtube I have to smile remembering a time when everything was much simpler.

The 1964-65 New York World's Fair

This is episode 5 of Remembrances Back in the Day: The 1964–65 New York World’s Fair. The New York World’s Fair ran from April thru October in 1964 and April thru October in 1965. This was at a time when everything seemed possible, we had just sent a man into space, the Beatles had just hit our shores, the Vietnam War was still in the background and the 1967 and 68 riots were still in th future. If you watch the AMC show Mad Man, this is around the time period it was based on. The fair was boycotted by most European and all communist bloc countries, so it was dominated by American industry and technology. It celebrated the US entrance into space and had an actual stage 1 rocket you could explore. There was a pavilions that showed people living on the moon and under the sea. There was a pavilion showing dinosaurs that moved and roared. 

One of the most popular pavilions was the one that celebrated computers. At this time computers were large enough they had to be housed in large rooms, so this was the first time most people got anywhere near a computer. Most of the expositions in this pavilion simply showed computers taking large amount of data and producing a list, like historic events for a certain year. The IBM exposition was different it actually attempted to show how computers worked. I do remember the PictaPhone which was a phone where you could see the person you were talking too, and in 1964 that was magical. I also remember getting a chocolate icecream cone on the way home. The NY World’s Fair was exciting and tiring for a 6 year old. It was a celebration of where we had been and where we might be going. To learn more about the 1964–1965 World’s Fair go to New York 1964 World’s Fair, which includes several good articles about the fair and a map of the fairground. Thank you for listening and have a good week.

My Little Brother

When I was born I was suppose to be the last child my parents were going to have. I was suppose to be a boy, after 2 girls the odds were going in that direction. So when I came along I was a bit of a surprise. In fact I have a card sent by a great aunt welcoming Tim in to the family. After three girls my parents decided that was it and had stopped trying. As we all know both nature and God have a sense of humor and this episode is about the surprise appearance of my younger brother Eric when I was almost five.

My Little Brother

The Crush

In this episode I talk about remembering Davy Jones of the Monkees and a more innocent time.  I had a big crush on him when I was about 10 or 11 and was sure I was going to marry him.  I brought the song Day Dream Believer as my first 45 and played it so much that it wore out.   Although I now recognize that the Beatles were the more superior group at the time the Beatles belong to my oldest sisters, the Monkees belong to my age group.  Even to this day I still think that the Monkees don't get credit they deserve, their songs were deceptively simple.   My favorite Monkees's songs were Day Dream Believer, The Crush