“If it weren’t for Philo T. Farnsworth, inventor of television, we’d still be eating frozen radio dinners.”
Today is a cold, clear winter’s day, the sort of winter’s day when the chill takes your breath away. The sky is an amazing blue with not even a cloud in sight.
I took a ride back in time this morning. First, I happened on Lassie, my Lassie with Jeff and Porky. I watched it without a critical eye. Ellen, his mother, wore the same outfit every 50’s mom wore, the same outfits Donna Reed and June Cleaver wore: dresses, high heels and some sort of jewelry, mostly pearls. The wall phone in the kitchen was one of those with a mouthpiece, a piece you hold to your ear and a crank you keep turning until the operator answers. I remember one vacation when we stayed in a huge, old house in Vermont. It had one of those wall phones, but when I tried it, I got a shock. I have no idea why that stuck with me. Anyway, back to Lassie. Ellen kept cranking. Jeff and Porky needed saving from drowning so Lassie came to the rescue and showed Gramps where the boys were.
If I were sitting on the floor in front of the TV and eating Rice Krispies, I’d swear I had been transported for a time back to the Saturday mornings of my youth as The Lone Ranger was on next. Right away I knew the voice of the Ranger wasn’t Clayton Moore’s. This episode was dated May 28, 1953 and was Season 3, Episode 38. I looked it up. It was John Hart who played the Ranger for 54 episodes from 1950-1953 because of a contract dispute. The narrator set the time, “In the raw, crude early days of the west.” Some of the scenes, especially the beginning and the end, were filmed outside but most were just a set with lots of rocks, bushes and a painted backdrop of more rocks and trees. I never noticed when I was young. I guess being a kid means a major suspension of disbelief.
Every Lone Ranger episode had a couple of common lines. “Don’t let this mask fool you. It is on the side of the law,” and, at the end, one character aways asked, “Who was that masked man?”
Hi Ho, Silver, Away!
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February 4, 2017 at 2:30 pm
The Prince and I have been rolling, a trip to the bank to deposit his Christmas money, in to Papa Vinos to get beer for the game tomorrow and we just watched Tottenham win 1-0 to remain in second.
Next weekend is the release of the Lego Batman movie, I am making a play for consecutive weekends. We are going out for burgers tonight.
I like it when the Prince is here and I am a little sad when he isn’t
February 4, 2017 at 3:35 pm
My Dear Hedley,
I can totally understand your sadness at missing him. With The Prince even the day to day stuff is fun, and you have a playmate for the guy stuff.
I’m hoping too you can two weekends in a row to make up for the ones you missed.
February 4, 2017 at 2:59 pm
I think every baby boomer identifies the William Tell overture opening theme with the Lone Ranger. His faithful companion Tonto, Jay Silverheels, was a real Native American and Clayton Moore treated him as an equal which was rare for the nineteen fifties. Of course my favorite Saturday morning kid show was Sky King. I had the hots in equal amounts for is niece Penny and his Cessna 310 airplane. Maybe my entire aviation career was propelled by sex. Penny, fight attendants, called Stewardesses in those days. 🙂
There were other TV Cowboys such as Hop Along Cassidy and Wild Bill Hickcock. Hickcock’s side kick was Andy Devine who played Jingles. Every episode begin with Jingles holding on to his hat and riding his horse while yelling ‘Wait for me Wild Bill’. I think Hop Along was the only good guy who wore a black hat. There were adult Westerns on prime time TV such as Gunsmoke, Have Gun Will Travel and the Rifleman.
I was a big fan of space travel shows such as Buster Krabbe as Flash Gordon and later Lost in Space. The space race was just beginning and going to the moon was still science fiction. I remember movies such as From the Earth to the Moon and Forbidden Planet. I never thought that I would see men walk on the moon in my lifetime.
Today is cloudy with cool temperatures in the 50s.
February 4, 2017 at 3:44 pm
Bob,
That was my quote a while back about only a snob hears the first few notes of The William Tell Overture and doesn’t think of the Lone Ranger.
I also liked Sky King. He was a cowboy of a different sort. He even dressed better than most with his jacket and cowboy tie.
You forgot Annie Oakley and The Cisco Kid. William Boyd aka Hopalong Cassidy was a smart guy. He bought the rights to all his pictures and marketed all sorts of “Hoppy” products, lunch boxes, toy guns, cowboy hats, etc., and received royalties from comic books, radio and records.
One of my favorites was Yancy Derringer.
Captain Midnight was the first scifi program I remember on TV. It whetted my appetite for science fiction.
It is downright cold.
February 4, 2017 at 4:55 pm
I’m too young to really call it a ride back in time but today I had to boo and protest against our local nazis again. We don’t want that they spread their hate in our town. Just a minor event this time and we were successful 🙂 At least for today.
February 4, 2017 at 5:33 pm
Sadly, the rise of Trump, and his war against ‘political correctness’ seems to give liscence to every scum bag to crawl out from under their rocks and spread their venomous hate.
February 4, 2017 at 5:39 pm
Bob,
Because Trump hasn’t condemned hatred but has rather encouraged it, we will keep seeing fires at mosques and similar hate crimes.
February 4, 2017 at 5:38 pm
Birgit,
Sadly it isn’t just a trip back in time. I’m so glad you protested. Nobody wants hate, especially their brand.
Trump is so thin skinned that all the protests have to be getting to him. The British want the PM to rescind the invitation to Trump. Good! Let them treat him the same way he has treated leaders from countries like Australia and Mexico.
February 4, 2017 at 6:17 pm
People forget that Hitler was elected Chancellor by the ‘good’ Germans who couldn’t believe that he would implement his hateful racial ideas because he was going to make Germany great again. There was this idea that Germany was Greatness was stolen from them by the Treaty of Versailles. We had our greatness taken away by the North American Free Trade Agreement, NATO and the European Union. Sound familiar.
February 4, 2017 at 6:53 pm
Bob,
The Treaty of Versailles handcuffed the Germans until they found ways around it and were able to make armaments.
Make Germany Great Again could very well have been Hitler’s motto.
February 4, 2017 at 8:00 pm
Kat and Bob, did you hear about the funny YouTube video “America first, the Netherlands second”? Now other EU countries want to be second too and made funny videos in the same style. Belgium, Denmark, Lithuania, Germany, Portugal and Switzerland so far, other countries will follow soon.
This is the German contribution (starts at 1:47min) :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcH9eWBs9fw
February 4, 2017 at 8:39 pm
Birgit,
That was wonderful. I laughed several times. He really skewered Trump, who definitely deserved it. Now I want to see some of the others.
Thanks!
February 4, 2017 at 9:03 pm
All videos should be linked here but it doesn’t work on my computer.
http://www.everysecondcounts.eu
If it works for you start with the Netherlands, other videos refer to this video. (If the site doesn’t work all videos are on youtube and there is a facebook and a twitter link.)
February 4, 2017 at 9:07 pm
Birgit,
I’ve already watched them all. The German video gave the web address. They are really funny. I don’t know which one I’d choose. I was sorry Portugal didn’t have a translation.
February 4, 2017 at 10:51 pm
That’s a wonderful video. Has anyone ever noticed that there is only one first denomination church in any town in America. Each town has only one First Baptist or First Methodist. There’s no second Baptist nor third Baptist churches. 🙂
At least the EU learned it’s lesson and realizes they’re the second and the UK is clearly third since they are exiting the EU and must be third regardless what Trump or PM May says. 🙂
February 5, 2017 at 5:46 am
It may turn out to be nothing… or it may be the start of something great: A National General Strike on Friday, February 17.
http://f17strike.com/
February 5, 2017 at 10:06 am
im6,
That it is a weekday might be a huge problem. Many people can’t afford missing work. Missing school is much easier.
I think that parents could use this to educate their children about peaceful protest and the responsibility of people in a democracy to speak up and not abide the tearing apart of the Constitution and civil liberties.
February 5, 2017 at 10:14 am
Bob,
I watched all the different countries and got good laughs. Some of the Trump voices are perfect.
I never noticed the churches, but you’re right. Besides who really wants to be second?
February 5, 2017 at 12:34 am
We got snow yesterday, not a lot but enough to make the ground white again. Can’t say I like it but it’ll be a bit brighter outside even if the sun doesn’t shine. They have changed the predictiins for next week from nasty low temperstures to just low 🙂
You had so much better programs than us. The only time they showed any childrens programs in the mornings here was if we were having the christmas vacation (back then we only had tweo channels and both were on our PBS). They did show Scooby Doo one year until a parent complained about her children getting scared when watching it, so that was that. I’ve always wondered why she allowed them to see it, the rest of us loved it but had to pay the price just because she didn’t tjink at all.
Nowdays our PBS have an entire channel with only childrens programs, times really change 🙂 and they show really good programs too 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
February 5, 2017 at 10:11 am
Christer,
It was cold all day yesterday. I did one errand then came home. This is going to be a cold week but warm is coming.
Silly parent! Her complaint deprived eveyone.
Saturday was the most amazing kid TV day with shows starting early on a couple of different stations. We were quiet all morning so my mother didn’t mind us watching. I think back then we had at least 3 channels.
Here now are quite a few cable stations devoted to kids’ programming, lots of choices.
Have a wonderful Sunday!