Whittling Away with Dick Brooks - Blast from the Past

I was sitting in my recliner the other day doing my exercises. I’m into surfing, mostly the educational type channels. Sure, it’s tiring and sometimes my thumb cramps up but I usually fight through the pain and get right back to my usual three to five channel changes a minute.

I came upon a real blast from the past when Bert and Ernie appeared on the screen. It’s been years since I had seen my old pals. They brought back fond memories of The Princess curled up on my lap. I watched for a while hoping to see my personal favorite put in an appearance but Cookie Monster was nowhere to be seen. Elmo did something with that big yellow chicken and the Count counted, all was right with the world.

I wondered how many of our old favorites were still to be seen. I know Babar is still around, I stumbled onto him a few weeks back. I suppose and hope that Mister Rogers still lives somewhere in the back of my television set. I know that to the youth of today that he’s kind of hokie and old fashioned but I trusted him with my children and he never let me down. In these days of computer graphics and special effects, his sock puppets don’t have the dazzle that kids have come to expect, but the last time I saw young ones watching one of his reruns, they were watching with their mouths open as the Trolley took them to The Land of Make Believe. You never got reality confused with the imaginary with Mr. Rogers. The Trolley separated the real world from the imagined in a clear and tangible way and for a small child, there was comfort in that.

I never really got into Barney, an overweight dancing blue dinosaur with a weird voice just didn’t turn me on. I don’t think it was Barney so much as the plastic kids he hung out with that irritated me. A bigger bunch of goodie- goodie two shoes has never been assembled in the same place in the history of entertainment. They all had impeccable manners, sang and danced on cue and were always smiling about something. As a teacher, they made me nervous. They probably will grow up to become serial killers or politicians.

I got thinking about some of the kid’s shows that I grew up listening to—no pictures just words. We gathered around the radio and listened to Sky King, The Lone Ranger, Roy Rogers and my favorite, Bobby Benson and the B-Bar-B. I wonder whatever happened to Bobby, the other three made the jump to television and I was able to follow their adventures but Bobby Benson just sort of disappeared. He probably took over the ranch when his dad retired and raised cattle until beleaguered with terminal saddle sores, he retired and today rocks on the ranch’s front porch and watched his grandchildren roar across the range on their four wheelers.

I can still name all the major characters that appeared on the Howdy Dowdy Show. He was the first real truly television kid’s show character that I can remember. He looked a lot like my brother Bud who used to do an amazing impersonation of Howdy. He even got a Howdy Dowdy puppet for Christmas. It was hard to tell them apart although the puppet did have more freckles, a better personality and a higher IQ.

I haven’t watched any of the latest string of kids’ shows. They just don’t interest me. I like the ones that I can identify with, the ones that meant something to me and my little ones. God love you Mr. Rogers, where ever you are.

Thought for the week—We could certainly slow the aging process down if it had to work its way through Congress. –Will Rogers

Until next week-may you and yours be happy and well.

Whittle12124@yahoo.com