Being a Baby Boomer

We were the generation who got to watch television on a six inch screen, but only if we were lucky enough to have a television. I remember watching Howdy Doody on Saturday mornings with a big guy named Buffalo Bob and a bunch of marionette puppets we actually thought were real. There was Howdy a freckle faced boy in western garb going along with the theme of the West. Along with Buffalo Bob; the real people in the show included Chief Thunderthud, Princess Summerfall Winterspring and a Clown named Clarabell. Clarabell never spoke through the duration of the show but used a bicycle horn to communicate and was full of mischief, especially when he squirted everyone with his famous seltzer bottle. The puppet entourage included: Howdy Doody the main character, Dilly Dally another boy who wore a baseball cap sideways, the grouchy old mayor of Doodyville; Phineas T. Bluster and a weird looking animal made up of various animal parts called Flub-a-dub. I also remember the last show when they goaded Clarabell to finally talk and he said with the saddest of faces: "Goodbye Kids" culminating the end of my favorite show and probably my innocence of youth.

There were other shows that I liked: Father Knows Best with Robert Young about a family of five and the troubles kids can get into. Father never yelled and mother always was dressed nicely with the familiar apron on and as the kids got into mischief, he always had a solution and used logic and common sense to show the kids the errors of their ways. Similar programs with a like theme were Leave It To Beaver, The Donna Reed Show and Stu Erwin. But there were more unforgettable ones; especially I Love Lucy. This was unlike any other program and so funny that every week I would roar with laughter before I went to bed. I didn't know what was going on in the world back then, but I always went to bed happy.

Alas, life goes on, my AARP magazine arrived today to snap me back into the reality of "old age". Very few programs depict a "normal family" with a mother, father and two or three kids. The Simpsons still depicts a nuclear family, but the father is a moron and the oldest kid is a little brat with a smart mouth. So goodbye to the innocence of youth and although I never got to be part of the "peanut gallery" in Doodyville, and I don't know how to play Nintendo, I do remember when being a kid was a wonderful thing. There was no Baby Einstein to teach me how to read. I played with toys that today would be deemed hazardous, I rode my bike without a helmet, skated with metal skates that required a skate key to make sure they fit properly, jumped on a pogo stick and had my share of bumps and bruises and walked my doll carriage up and down the block but primarily enjoyed the more tomboy stuff. I do not regret any of the booboos I received from playing with my friends. I kept the Band-Aid company in business, but we played each day until we were called in for dinner or the street lights went on. Television was a treat that we watched on rainy days and Saturday mornings, we didn't need exercise because we played.

If the kids of today only knew what it was like to use your imagination and if parents didn't have to worry that our children were being kidnapped by a lunatic, life was so much sweeter back in the days of our innocent youth.