It's hot...
It's beyond hot, it's freaking hot, hot and the humidity isn't helping.
I have been running from air conditioned space to the next air conditioned space with out dawdling in the outdoors much. It's the kind of weather that is great for corn, but not so great for wimpy people.
I am a wimpy person.
This morning as I read the news on-line and a few blogs, I couldn't help but think what would I do without the computer? How in the world did I do without a computer before? It has become my main source of information, connectivity, and entertainment.
It entertains me a lot, so much so, that I wonder if I even really need a tv. Of the hundreds of channels that are available for the consumer today, there still never seems to be a whole heck of a lot on worth watching. There is only a couple of shows that I make any effort to remember when they are broadcast.
A far cry from back in the day when I was a kid. It seemed as kids, we were always surrounded around the boob tube at night. Some of my fondest memories are late Saturday nights, staying up past midnight to watch Dr. SanGuinary out of Omaha. He hosted Creature Feature that showed all kinds of vintage horror movies. I was privy to the cinematic masterpieces of "Godzilla", "Mothra", "Night of the Lepus", "Them", and other assorted black and white "B" movies.
I would camp out in the living room on a blanket with popcorn and my brothers and I would wait, and wait forever for midnight to arrive for our Saturday night dose of Dr. SanGuinary. Sunday nights would bring Marlin Perkins and Mutual of Omaha's "Wild Kingdom", always followed by Disney.
I don't know of many nights that the whole family did not surround the tv, especially when dad was home. He loved tv. He had his favorite chair, and once he was home from work, all of his work ceased and the tv was his entertainment of choice, and we were his channel changers.
The channels were fewer then. We only had channels 3,6,7,10, and sometimes PBS on channel 12 if it decided to come in. We were content with our limited channel selections. We made do with what we had, and it seemed we always found something to entertain us.
Maybe we were just easy to entertain back then? We didn't need a lot of choice, or maybe we were just happy to have a choice.
I remember my great grandparents in their tiny house with their tiny black and white tv. They didn't watch a lot of tv, but there was one show that my great grandmother in particular was fond of. They would go to bed early at night and set their alarm so they could get back up late at night to watch AWA out of Omaha.
Yes, my great grandparents were closet wrestling fanatics. Back in the day before cage matches, and ultimate fighting, they watched Baron "the claw" Von Raschke, and "Mad Dog" Vachon in their bouts for the title. I don't know what it was about grown men in tight trunks and laced up boots writhing in headlocks and arm pins, but it kept them captivated.
Today has me thinking of being easily entertained while hibernating in the a/c. Though my tastes have grown and evolved as I have gotten older, there is still a part of me that yearns for that excited feeling of sitting down for a much anticipated show or movie as in my childhood. It has me thinking of Dr. SanGuinary, Marlin, and The Baron, and wishing they were still here to entertain me.
You clever vixen you with your "Easy Entertainment" you knew I'd have to come for that! LOL ;-)
ReplyDeleteI didn't watch TV much as a kid and I don't now although I go in cycles of watching more. I think there's a lot of good stuff on, I just have more important things to do.
LOL . . . most of my childhood memories about TV were that my dad HAD to watch Hogan's Heros . . . I know there were others, but THAT one we knew not to interrupt or even try to talk to him during . . . I also loved staying awake and sneaking out of my bedroom to lay in the hall so that just my head would peek around the corner so I could see the scary movies that my dad liked to watch late at night . . . I didn't want him to know I was there, (I was supposed to be sound asleep in bed) and the movies -- Outer Limits and The Twilight Zone, etc -- scared me to DEATH (I can't even count the number of times I laid awake the rest of the night, huddled under my pillows and covers to avoid detection by invading aliens and people determined to poison me . . . absolutely PETRIFIED . . . but I still continued to sneak out and watch. One movie, "The Crawling Eye" TERRIFIED me for years and years . . . Now the premise seems VERY unlikely and silly, but it fueled my nightmares for a very long time.
ReplyDeleteStill, for the most part, I was never really a TV junkie . . . I think, for the most part, I was in the middle of a very large family and when everybody ELSE was watching TV, enthralled, that left me to some preciously rare and much craved 'alone' time . . . Then when I married, my husband was such a TVaholic, that since we rarely liked the same shows, I didn't watch much, so I used evenings to sew or read or clean . . .
There are shows I enjoy, but I so rarely watch live TV, I have no idea when they are actually on, so if tivo doesn't record them, I never see them . . .
We only had a black and white tv with a 9 in screen when we were kids ,so my nan read a lot to me .Now we have one with 83 Chanel but not a lot on then ,so I now read a lot
ReplyDeleteNight of the Lepus was awesome!!!! Yes, I loved wild kingdom! I used to watch Batman and Robin and afterwards Daniel Boone in the afternoons.
ReplyDeleteWe have a tv station here called MeTv that plays all those old one. I can get some of them on Netflix too. I have been watching the Dick VanDyke show, The Rockford Files and Quincy. Oh I miss the television shows back then.
Good for you Robert! Those good habits we acquire in childhood serve us well as we get older...
ReplyDeleteOnce in a great while Nick at Night, or the Hallmark channel will play Dick VanDyke. It's amazing that having not seen an episode in years, that I can remember it exactly.... Yet, I can not remember my shopping list that I just composed earlier...Argh! lol.
ReplyDeleteI know EXACTLY how you feel...lol
ReplyDeleteVic.
ReplyDeleteI would miss my computers (yes plural) because they connect me to so many people and things that I wouldn't have otherwise. I wouldn't get to be anxious to get home from work this month to read your blogs. I wouldn't understand so many things that Trudi has taught so many of us. Google has yet to fail to answer any question I have asked. If ya get bored ya can google anything that comes in your head and it's on google.
When I was a kis we didn't have TV so we sat around at night and "watched" the radio. The programs were wonderful and exciting. Gunsmoke, Dragnet, Jack benny, etc.. It was what we had and it was good.
Oooh I am lucky enough to be able to do that in saturday and sunday nights. The public radio here has 3 hours of assorted old time radio programs.
ReplyDeleteI love it!
Guy I remember my mom saying the exact thing about the radio. I don't think they got a tv til she was out of high school. She does remember listening to Fibber McGee and Molly, westerns, and a few other shows. Most of the time was limited to what her dad wanted to listen to. Being a farmer, the farmer reports and weather stuff took precedence over anything else,lol.
ReplyDeleteTV is a big part of Leroy's and my entertainment.
ReplyDeleteI know you like dancing with the stars Sharon, and of course American Idol! So who gets to actually hold the tv remote? You or Leroy?lol.
ReplyDeleteI remember the first time I saw TV.. our neighbour had bought one .. the first house in the street... black and white...I was about 7 or 8... We, my older sister and I were invited to come and watch a program, so along we went after dinner one night.. we saw THE LONE RANGER....It was amazing.... when it was over we had to go back home .. and I remember I was very disappointed as it was still daylight. I had thought it would be dark lol.. must have been summertime.
ReplyDeleteLOL....Vic actually when we are both watching he usually hands the remote to me.
ReplyDeleteWe watch So You Think You Can Dance as well as Dancing With The Stars. I am lucky that Leroy likes the dance shows. He really does enjoy them. As a kid I watched Arthur Murry's Dance Party with my Mom when it aired. And Mouseketeers dancing on Mickey Mouse Club. And then our daughter made dancing a part of our lives realtime from the time she was age 5 till now and it continues. LOL
Leroy and I also watch Animal Planet and Food Network and Histroy Channel. Lots and lots of movies...sitcoms when they are good and Leroy watches Professional Poker sometimes. And the list could go on. LOL
Lol Glenda, most kids at that age would have been afraid to walk home in the dark..
ReplyDeleteHe hands you the remote?!! lol How in the world did you get him trained Sharon? ;))
ReplyDeleteFibbers Closet was one of the funny parts of Fibber McGee and Molly. The whole show was funny. Jack Benny & Rochester, George & Gracey, amos & Andy. They were all good.
ReplyDeleteVery surprised not to hear how all you guys rolled on the floor in hysterics over the test tube pattern on your late night TV entertainment.
ReplyDeleteLol Misty, we always knew the test pattern was coming when they started playing the national anthem...
ReplyDeleteIs that guy using the new hand you sewed onto his wrist? I guess your scientific experiments work sometimes.
ReplyDeleteSee George?!! Now there is no need to feel so nervous now! ;))
ReplyDeleteIts like the lottery I guess?
ReplyDeleteUh huh! And your number keeps coming up every time,lol ;))
ReplyDeleteYou rigged it!!! Ok I have to ask... did you update your scientific equipment? or is it still running on Windows 2.0?
ReplyDeleteWell at the moment it isn't running, it appears to be napping.....but I am sure all that hamster needs is a little prodding.;)
ReplyDeleteMy recommendation is to power it with intestinal gas.
ReplyDeleteNow you tell me...I had been giving it cheerios..
ReplyDeleteI would gladly help you with the setup.
ReplyDeleteAh George, I knew I could count on you to step up and volunteer for another scientific experiment! ;))
ReplyDeletehaha so long as I get a crack at it too.
ReplyDeleteYou are cracked George....it's kinda hard to get the glue to stick when you keep dripping on that other blog,lol ;)
ReplyDeleteI told you not to use that cheap glue made from spit.
ReplyDeleteHey the good stuff costs an arm and a leg.
ReplyDeleteI guess that's why I write with my left hand and walk on one leg.
ReplyDelete