An Ode to Six Channels (Where did all these channels come from?)

 I freely admit I have reached an age where I like to riminess.  Really depending on the day, what I think about from the long ago changes on a regular basis.  it might be food, could be baseball, or school.  It could be some old friends.  In fact, I have thought about old friends a lot in the past week.  

I was in St. Louis all of last week because my mother was in the hospital, having broken her hip in a fall.  While there I talked, texted or emailed several friends I had back in the 60's and 70 that were concerned about mom's condition.

They included (not in any certain order, and sorry gals, I'm using names I knew you by 50 years ago).  Paige Staggs, Lisa Childs, Linda Richardson, Daryl Simmons, Sam Bates, Sandy Frazier, Sandy Smith, Bruce Chilton, Lynn Anderson, Reggie Wright, Sherry Tomnitz, Vanessa Davis, Leslie Davis and Keith Uebelein.  Plus of course my brother Barry.

But on this Wednesday night, as I sit home wide awake with Influenza Type A., it was one of my newer friends who suggested the topic for this blog.  Allison Blair is an Alabama girl through and through.  She has never lived anywhere else.  Since I have only lived here about 10 years, I do not have the history with her I do with the previous dozen.  But one thing I have discovered about her, that is really scary, we think a lot alike, especially in humor.

Our brains were in sync earlier this evening because I was watching an old NBC News program that had Chet Huntley and Frank McGee on it.   Chances are no one under 50 knows who those two gentlemen are.  They were news anchors in the long ago.  Anyway, Blair says write about your old tv channels, more specifically, "an ode to six channels", which is what we had growing up in St. Louis.

ABC was on Ch. 2, CBS was Ch. 4, NBC on Ch. 5, PBS on Ch. 9, and we had two independent stations, Ch's. 11 and 30.  That's it, six stations, and we were happy to have those six stations.  My wife M, said for much of her growing up years, they had channel, NBC.  Ugh.

It's funny, looking back on it, six stations was plenty.  I mean, you can only watch one at a time.  But with so few channels, it was easy to remember where your favorite shows were and what time they came on.

The one show I remember us watching faithfully was "Bonanza."  It came on Sunday night at 8 on NBC.  After Sunday night worship, we always watched the Cartwrights.  There was something about westerns.  On Wednesday there was "The Virginian," with James Drury, also on NBC.  Then on Friday nights, the Peacock had "High Chapparal," another favorite of mine.

It seems like CBS had all the comedies.  There was "Gilligan's Island," which I mention first, because my first tv crush was Dawn Wells, who played Mary Ann.  We loved "Green Acres" and "Petticoat Junction." 

I was a huge "Hawaii Five-O" fan, but one of my absolute faves was "The Addams Family."  I'm telling you, John Astin as Gomez Addams is the best casting in the history of television.  If you haven't seen him, go to You Tube and look up best of John Astin as Gomez Addams.  Classic

Every Saturday morning my brother could be found in front of the television watching "The Bugs Bunny Road Runner Show."  Simply the best cartoons ever, then later on ABC "Wide World of Sports" came on.  I can still hear Jim McKay saying, "...spanning the globe, to bring you the constant variety in sports.  The thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat."  Still gives me chills.

One last thing.  I am so glad there was no Fox News, CNBC, CNN or any other all-news channel.  All I needed were Chet Huntley and David Brinkley.  "Good night, Chet," "Good night, David, and good night for NBC News."

Good night my friends, both old and new, that is enough reminiscing for tonight.  I love all of you.