He was once a Little Green Ball of Clay – Memories of Me Monday

TODAY’S MEMORY JOGGER: “What do you think of television?  Describe a few of the shows you have liked or disliked, and why.”

The earliest t.v. shows I can remember watching were The Mickey Mouse Club (of which my brother, Mikie, and I were both card-carrying members), and Howdy Doody (“Say kids, what time is it?”  “It’s Howdy-Doody Time!”).

Yikes, that was in the late 50’s!  Makes me wonder whether I truly remember watching them, or were just told about it.  I’d have been less than three years old.

Here are some of my fave shows during my growing up years, in no particular order:

The Wonderful World of Disney
Dark Shadows
The Flintstones
The Jetsons
GumbyI Love Lucy
Bonanza
Mannix
Mr. Ed
My Three Sons
The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriett
Father Knows Best
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Dragnet
Leave it to Beaver
Lassie
The Twilight Zone
The Brady Bunch
The Red Skelton Show

I know there were many more, but I don’t want this post to be simply a list of t.v. shows from the 50’s, 60’, and 70’s.  There are lots of websites where you can find a list like that; click here for just one of them.

I have special memories of some of these shows, though.  For example, The Flintstones.

The Flintstones came on shortly after I got home from school in the 5th and 6th grades.  We kids would watch it while we had our after-school snack, usually home-baked chocolate chip cookies and milk.  Often my mom, who sewed most of what we three girls wore, would be in her sewing room (which was really just a tiny corner of the laundry room) just off the den where our t.v. was.  Whenever she pressed the foot pedal to run her machine it interfered with the t.v. signal and the picture would get staticky.   Before we could even groan she’d call out to us, “I’m almost finished!”

Funny, the things you remember!

Then there was Dark Shadows.  This soap-opera type show about vampires came on at 4:00 p.m. when I was in junior high school, and the memory of watching it is linked to the memory of my mom in the kitchen getting dinner ready.  It was a double happiness kinda thing; I loved the show ( it was dark and moody and romantic and what jr. high school girl doesn’t like that?), and while watching it I also had a yummy homecooked meals to look forward to.

The Wonderful World of Disney was a family favorite for years and years.  We all gathered around the t.v. every Sunday evening to watch this show, hosted by Walt Disney himself, and which featured documentaries, cartoons, and educational shorts, all original programming from the Disney studios.  It was a much looked forward to hour of family time, a great show, and a last weekend pleasure before a new school and work week began.

Finally, although I’m currently focusing my Memories of Me posts only on my childhood years I can’t resist including this last little anecdote which occurred only around 10 years or so ago.

My sisters, Denise and Lisa, and I went to San Francisco to see The Phantom of the Opera at the Orpheum Theatre.  We had a fantastic time and, on our way back on BART, for some reason that I can’t now remember (maybe we were talking about the t.v. shows we’d watched as kids??) we burst out in song:

“He was once a little green ball of clay. . . GUMBY!

You should see what Gumby can do today . . . GUMBY!

He can walk into any book, with his pony pal Pokey, too,

If you’ve got a heart, then Gumby’s a part of you . . . . GUMBY!”

Then we collapsed in laughter while all around us other passengers grinned and smiled.

Isn’t it great how the theme songs from favorite childhood t.v. shows stay with you for the rest of your life??

FOR NEXT WEEK: “Describe how you feel about libraries and talk about some of your experiences surrounding them.”