My earliest recollection is standing up in my crib, hands firmly gripping the top rail, looking out into the darkness. There is faint light coming in from the hall on the second floor of 7 Liberty Street. My father comes home late at night glances in and sees me standing there. “What are you doing up buddy?” I had no answer.
He gently puts me down on my side and covers me up. Basically a little boy wondering “What am I doing here?”
It’s a couple of years later and I am kneeling in front of a radio speaker with my sister Eileen. It is a tall wooden radio/record player and we are listening to an episode of “The Lone Ranger” on a Saturday morning. It is my first memory of radio.This is 1952 and we are, like many, a home with only radio. There are many sound effects on the radio show and of course the hoof beats of horses are prominent among them. One other effect that I remember clearly is of someone who had fallen into a well. I had to ask my mother what a well was but I knew from what I had heard that this guy had fallen into some kind of hole.
We thought that they were great stories and the sound effects were wonderful. I think we would have been content and happy for years just listening to these stories and using our imagination. It was actually quite satisfying.
About a year later Dad brought home our first tiny television. Where kids of previous eras had been entertained by colorful itinerant puppet shows appearing in town centers we got our first taste of puppets on that small screen. It was just as mesmerizing for us. There were mainly three shows with puppets. Early on it was Rootie Kazootie and Kukla, Fran and Ollie. Fran was real nice and reassured us that everything was all right amidst all the crazy goings ons.
The third television show in the mid 50s featuring puppets was the Howdy Doody Show. We watched it faithfully and were rarely disappointed. It was a higher quality production than the previous two and Buffalo Bob seemed like a real good guy. Anyone who watched it remembers Phineas T. Bluster, Dilly Dally and the Flub- a- Dub. Well done puppeteers!
There were also quite a few Westerns in those early days of television. The big three were Hopalong Cassidy, The Cisco Kid and the show about the best, greatest, grandest and most glorious cowboy of them all-Roy Rogers. Roy had a sense of humor. He always got a kick out of Pat Brady’s antics. Whenever he got into a fistfight with the bad guys he always came out of it with a cut lip. He was always wiping blood off that lower lip.
As wonderful as Roy and his wife Dale were I think their horses fascinated me a bit more. Trigger and Buttermilk were beautiful horses and figured as real characters in the show. But…. as beautiful as those Palomino and Buckskin horses were there was something on the show that fascinated me even more-Accoutrements! I never tired of looking at the well decorated saddle, bridle and stirrups on Trigger. I was totally enthralled. They were absolutely magnificent. Works of art. I still admire them greatly whenever I see them.
About that time Gabby Hayes hosted a show featuring western movies. Old Gabby played a rough spoken prospector type. He had a grizzled beard and upturned hat. The show he hosted was sponsored by Cocoa Cola.
At the end of these shows was an offer to get a genuine cowboy scarf. You needed 25 cents and a CocaCola bottle cap to get one. Boy I sure would like to get one of those bandanas I thought. I did not think this was possible but my father noticed and said I think we can do that. He carefully showed me how he went about putting the necessary items in the envelope. Letter, bottle cap and quarter were on their way.
A week later the package arrived in a brown envelope.
Now I was one excited little fellow. When my father opened it and slowly took out that red bandana it was as if I were in Heaven. Heck I was in Heaven! I studied every square inch of it over and over again. There were cowboys on horses with lariats and steers and a rope border. This scarf might as well have been made of pure gold. Never in the history of mankind has a scarf been the object of such reverence and devotion. It was put in a most special place where I went back to admire it again and again and again. I walked on air for days.
I am sure many of my generation have memories similar to these….the “magic” of electronic media I suppose. Like snowflakes however, no two memories are exactly the same.
Oh, and I still occasionally look out into the darkness and ask “What am I doing here?”
He gently puts me down on my side and covers me up. Basically a little boy wondering “What am I doing here?”
It’s a couple of years later and I am kneeling in front of a radio speaker with my sister Eileen. It is a tall wooden radio/record player and we are listening to an episode of “The Lone Ranger” on a Saturday morning. It is my first memory of radio.This is 1952 and we are, like many, a home with only radio. There are many sound effects on the radio show and of course the hoof beats of horses are prominent among them. One other effect that I remember clearly is of someone who had fallen into a well. I had to ask my mother what a well was but I knew from what I had heard that this guy had fallen into some kind of hole.
We thought that they were great stories and the sound effects were wonderful. I think we would have been content and happy for years just listening to these stories and using our imagination. It was actually quite satisfying.
About a year later Dad brought home our first tiny television. Where kids of previous eras had been entertained by colorful itinerant puppet shows appearing in town centers we got our first taste of puppets on that small screen. It was just as mesmerizing for us. There were mainly three shows with puppets. Early on it was Rootie Kazootie and Kukla, Fran and Ollie. Fran was real nice and reassured us that everything was all right amidst all the crazy goings ons.
The third television show in the mid 50s featuring puppets was the Howdy Doody Show. We watched it faithfully and were rarely disappointed. It was a higher quality production than the previous two and Buffalo Bob seemed like a real good guy. Anyone who watched it remembers Phineas T. Bluster, Dilly Dally and the Flub- a- Dub. Well done puppeteers!
There were also quite a few Westerns in those early days of television. The big three were Hopalong Cassidy, The Cisco Kid and the show about the best, greatest, grandest and most glorious cowboy of them all-Roy Rogers. Roy had a sense of humor. He always got a kick out of Pat Brady’s antics. Whenever he got into a fistfight with the bad guys he always came out of it with a cut lip. He was always wiping blood off that lower lip.
As wonderful as Roy and his wife Dale were I think their horses fascinated me a bit more. Trigger and Buttermilk were beautiful horses and figured as real characters in the show. But…. as beautiful as those Palomino and Buckskin horses were there was something on the show that fascinated me even more-Accoutrements! I never tired of looking at the well decorated saddle, bridle and stirrups on Trigger. I was totally enthralled. They were absolutely magnificent. Works of art. I still admire them greatly whenever I see them.
About that time Gabby Hayes hosted a show featuring western movies. Old Gabby played a rough spoken prospector type. He had a grizzled beard and upturned hat. The show he hosted was sponsored by Cocoa Cola.
At the end of these shows was an offer to get a genuine cowboy scarf. You needed 25 cents and a CocaCola bottle cap to get one. Boy I sure would like to get one of those bandanas I thought. I did not think this was possible but my father noticed and said I think we can do that. He carefully showed me how he went about putting the necessary items in the envelope. Letter, bottle cap and quarter were on their way.
A week later the package arrived in a brown envelope.
Now I was one excited little fellow. When my father opened it and slowly took out that red bandana it was as if I were in Heaven. Heck I was in Heaven! I studied every square inch of it over and over again. There were cowboys on horses with lariats and steers and a rope border. This scarf might as well have been made of pure gold. Never in the history of mankind has a scarf been the object of such reverence and devotion. It was put in a most special place where I went back to admire it again and again and again. I walked on air for days.
I am sure many of my generation have memories similar to these….the “magic” of electronic media I suppose. Like snowflakes however, no two memories are exactly the same.
Oh, and I still occasionally look out into the darkness and ask “What am I doing here?”