Goodbye analog television
A few months back - June I think it was - the switch to digital tv happened. We had applied the government coupons we got in the mail to the cost of two Zenith converter boxes, weeks ahead of the deadline. I didn't know if the picture would be that much better, after all, it would end up on an old analog tv picture tube anyway.
What I hadn't taken into account were all the additional sub-channels. Instantly we went from 10 local channels to 22, and a 23rd channel, a free movie channel, was added later. (And no, I won't buy cable or satellite. Thanks for asking.) Two of the channels show the local weather radar, and that has come in handy more than once. Also, the image is noticably better.
One thing I'll miss though, is those times when odd atmospheric conditions would allow long distance stations to skip into my tv. When I was a kid, it wasn't all that rare to pick up channel 6 from Sedalia Missouri, 7 from Pittsburg Kansas, and the two 13's, Topeka Kansas and Columbia Missouri. I recall watching the old black and white movie, "The Fly" on 13 out of Topeka one night. Every so often the picture would dissolve in static - interference from Columbia 13 maybe - then come back. That made an already scary science fiction / horror movie even more intense. We'd rarely get the Springfield Missouri stations though, their channels 3 and 10 were usually clobbered by "bleed-through" from our local channels 4 and 9.
Years later, I made a game of it when I noticed the atmospherics were especially good. In the 1990's we had a small portable color set that was excellent at picking up those weak signals. If I could spare the time, I'd set down with paper and pen and channel surf, noting all the unusual channels. Then I'd try to make out where the broadcasts were from. That little tv would pull in stations, not only from other parts of Missouri (Columbia, Springfield, Joplin, St. Louis), and Kansas (Topeka, Pittsburg, Wichita), but also from Oklahoma, Iowa, Illinois, and I think Fayetteville Arkansas once. Not all at the same time, of course. The long distance champ...channel 55 out of Springfield ILLINOIS, of all places. I have absolutely no clue how that high of a UHF frequency could have skipped that far, but it did...briefly.
Digital tv is definitely an improvement, but it's a whole different animal. Pulling in long distance television signals will never happen again.
I have questions for my readers
Speaking of missing things, here's the first question...
1. If you could travel back in time to the 1960's, what modern thing that didn't exist then would you miss most? (It doesn't have to be just one thing, list all you want)
2. If you knew you could Not fail at something, what would you attempt?
3. Phooey, there was a third question...maybe it'll come back to me. For now I'll turn it around...What would you like to ask me?
Ah, I've got it, the third question was...well, I guess it has to be number 4 now...
4. What's the oddest tourist attraction you've ever seen on vacation? (Again, list more than one if it's a toss-up.)
I'd really like to get comments from you all. I'm curious what thoughts I've jarred loose with this.
Friday, August 28, 2009
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
This is classic.
Hey, if you need a laugh, link over to this post on Cousin Mike's Central Standard blog.
The only thing I can add is that I did know a daschund once who could sing...he'd carry the tune right along.
The only thing I can add is that I did know a daschund once who could sing...he'd carry the tune right along.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
One for the southpaws
This is almost too late, but I just found out a few minutes ago. This was national left-handers day.
I hope it was an enjoyable one.
I hope it was an enjoyable one.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Happy Birthday, Mike!
It’s Mike’s birthday again, and boy did that year fly by! I spent some time earlier trying to think of something extra clever to post, but had a bit of writer’s block; other than to say that we got no mail today. So Mike, how did you get your birthday to be a postal holiday?
Anyway, instead of trying to come up with something new, how about something old.
I have good memories of the times my family and I would travel to Poppy’s farm in the Ozarks. Usually we’d stay a week, a few times almost two. Always there would be a day or two when Mike’s family would drive over from Branson. If the weather was good, and it usually was, we’d divide our time inside the house and outside in the yard. We could always come up with something to do, even if it was just to look at comics and crack each other up with jokes.
One year we came up with a club, the Human Bean Club. We tied a rope between two closely spaced trees and put an old blanket across the top, weighted down with a few rocks at the bottom; that was our HBC tent. A flag was hastily made with a sheet of paper, colored with crayons (probably from that box of smoky crayons I'd bought at a dime store in Forsyth that had a fire sale). This was - I think - 1964 or 1965. We agreed that having a club had merit, and eventually play money was made and I think membership cards (I can't prove the latter from the archives though). The HBC club lasted over a year, maybe almost two years.
Sometimes I was invited to Mike's house to spend the night, and the hours would fly by. Paper, pens and pencils were an absolutely necessity, and the "creativity" (silliness) would begin. The cartoons I'd draw would usually involve characters I'd make up with oval shaped bodies, hastily drawn hands and odd eyes, big honkin' tennis shoes and messy hair. The plots usually involved trying to outrun a tornado, or were a setup for some pun or play on words. In later years, I came up with one truly odd attempt to build a storyline combining elements of Star Trek, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Hogan's Heroes (hillbillies hiding from the rev'noors in underground tunnels, firing a phaser-like weapon to freeze an approaching tornado). If it was late enough and you were sleep deprived, it almost made sense. Kind of.
Mike had his own character, Fuzz-Man, whose special power was that he could attract lint and expand to giant size. Useful when dealing with his arch-enemies, Captain Endust, and the giant vacuum cleaner. Sometimes Mike would draw an already established super hero, usually Batman. Most of my stuff was just odd humor, but Mike's superhero themes inspired me to come up with Jello-Man. That character had worked in the Jello factory and one day had accidentally fallen into the vat of grape Jello (I had a purple pencil). Now that he was a shape-shifter, Jello-Man could thin himself out and ooze under the door when he accidentally locked himself out of his apartment. And he could also...hmmm...well, what else? I'll get back to you on that one. Someday.
Later and later it would get. We'd try to keep the laughter to a minimum as we passed the cartoons back and forth. We'd always get shushed once or twice from Mike's mom or dad. The stuff they put up with.
Once we got into foreign languages. Mike knew some German, and I had learned some French in class. We'd write the foreign words, then the translation. The sillier the better; things such as "I don't understand the beach", and "When will the potato sing"?
Once in a while we'd get philosophical. I had realized something that had troubled me a bit. At the time, M&Ms came in red, orange, yellow, green and brown. We'd been on a completely different subject, so I sprang it on him.
"Mike, why are there no blue M&M's"? We had a good laugh over that and pondered what we could do. We decided we ought to send the company a telegram:
DEAR M AND MS STOP WHY NO BLUE STOP
I wish we'd followed through and actually sent that, but neither of us quite had the nerve. But as we all know there have been blue (and purple) M&Ms for some years now, so they must have gotten the message somehow.
Once or twice we stayed up late enough that we heard the newspaper hit the front step. Mike would go out and bring it in, and we'd head straight for the comics page.
We had to be among the first in town to read the days comic strips in the Branson Beacon. Got a jump on most everybody else. That felt good. Then we'd finally get a few hours sleep, and pretty much be worthless for the rest of the day.
Mike, I hope you had a great day and made more fun memories!
(I'd like to read a response to this...I know I left stuff out.)
Anyway, instead of trying to come up with something new, how about something old.
I have good memories of the times my family and I would travel to Poppy’s farm in the Ozarks. Usually we’d stay a week, a few times almost two. Always there would be a day or two when Mike’s family would drive over from Branson. If the weather was good, and it usually was, we’d divide our time inside the house and outside in the yard. We could always come up with something to do, even if it was just to look at comics and crack each other up with jokes.
One year we came up with a club, the Human Bean Club. We tied a rope between two closely spaced trees and put an old blanket across the top, weighted down with a few rocks at the bottom; that was our HBC tent. A flag was hastily made with a sheet of paper, colored with crayons (probably from that box of smoky crayons I'd bought at a dime store in Forsyth that had a fire sale). This was - I think - 1964 or 1965. We agreed that having a club had merit, and eventually play money was made and I think membership cards (I can't prove the latter from the archives though). The HBC club lasted over a year, maybe almost two years.
Sometimes I was invited to Mike's house to spend the night, and the hours would fly by. Paper, pens and pencils were an absolutely necessity, and the "creativity" (silliness) would begin. The cartoons I'd draw would usually involve characters I'd make up with oval shaped bodies, hastily drawn hands and odd eyes, big honkin' tennis shoes and messy hair. The plots usually involved trying to outrun a tornado, or were a setup for some pun or play on words. In later years, I came up with one truly odd attempt to build a storyline combining elements of Star Trek, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Hogan's Heroes (hillbillies hiding from the rev'noors in underground tunnels, firing a phaser-like weapon to freeze an approaching tornado). If it was late enough and you were sleep deprived, it almost made sense. Kind of.
Mike had his own character, Fuzz-Man, whose special power was that he could attract lint and expand to giant size. Useful when dealing with his arch-enemies, Captain Endust, and the giant vacuum cleaner. Sometimes Mike would draw an already established super hero, usually Batman. Most of my stuff was just odd humor, but Mike's superhero themes inspired me to come up with Jello-Man. That character had worked in the Jello factory and one day had accidentally fallen into the vat of grape Jello (I had a purple pencil). Now that he was a shape-shifter, Jello-Man could thin himself out and ooze under the door when he accidentally locked himself out of his apartment. And he could also...hmmm...well, what else? I'll get back to you on that one. Someday.
Later and later it would get. We'd try to keep the laughter to a minimum as we passed the cartoons back and forth. We'd always get shushed once or twice from Mike's mom or dad. The stuff they put up with.
Once we got into foreign languages. Mike knew some German, and I had learned some French in class. We'd write the foreign words, then the translation. The sillier the better; things such as "I don't understand the beach", and "When will the potato sing"?
Once in a while we'd get philosophical. I had realized something that had troubled me a bit. At the time, M&Ms came in red, orange, yellow, green and brown. We'd been on a completely different subject, so I sprang it on him.
"Mike, why are there no blue M&M's"? We had a good laugh over that and pondered what we could do. We decided we ought to send the company a telegram:
DEAR M AND MS STOP WHY NO BLUE STOP
I wish we'd followed through and actually sent that, but neither of us quite had the nerve. But as we all know there have been blue (and purple) M&Ms for some years now, so they must have gotten the message somehow.
Once or twice we stayed up late enough that we heard the newspaper hit the front step. Mike would go out and bring it in, and we'd head straight for the comics page.
We had to be among the first in town to read the days comic strips in the Branson Beacon. Got a jump on most everybody else. That felt good. Then we'd finally get a few hours sleep, and pretty much be worthless for the rest of the day.
Mike, I hope you had a great day and made more fun memories!
(I'd like to read a response to this...I know I left stuff out.)
Don't you give me those dirty looks...
That begins my favorite lyrics from Yakity Yak, just before the clue given by Mike.
Don't you give me those dirty looks,
Your father's hip he knows what cooks...
That's a fun memory. I'd guessed 1958 when I figured out it was Yakity Yak, performed by The Coasters, but I was prepared to be off a year either way. Then I looked it up and found it was 1958...bonus. I don't always get the year right.
I even remember hearing that song on the radio "back in the day", but I'm sure I didn't appreciate it until some years later after hearing it repeated as a "blast from the past" or a "golden oldie".
Don't you give me those dirty looks,
Your father's hip he knows what cooks...
That's a fun memory. I'd guessed 1958 when I figured out it was Yakity Yak, performed by The Coasters, but I was prepared to be off a year either way. Then I looked it up and found it was 1958...bonus. I don't always get the year right.
I even remember hearing that song on the radio "back in the day", but I'm sure I didn't appreciate it until some years later after hearing it repeated as a "blast from the past" or a "golden oldie".
Friday, August 7, 2009
Thanks for talking back
It's Friday night and I figure that's a good time to give the answer to the most recent Lyrics Game.
The quote was:
"Just tell your hoodlum friend outside
You ain't got time to take a ride"
It was indeed, as one commenter suggested, from the song Yakety Yak and was written for the Coasters.
The quote was:
"Just tell your hoodlum friend outside
You ain't got time to take a ride"
It was indeed, as one commenter suggested, from the song Yakety Yak and was written for the Coasters.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Re: Taking up some slack / lyrics game
Hey Mike,
I think I know this one. I'll wait, what do you think - a couple of days, and see if anyone chimes in with the answer first.
Hopefully I'll have my computer back soon, as good as new.
Until then, here's some random thoughts from the library computer, to pad this out a bit...
My friend Duane (one of the rocket people) checks this blog occasionally, so here's a message. Duane, I got the newsletter today, and I enjoyed the articles. Don't know yet if I'll make it to FFFF this year, but I hope to. Oh, and those high school era photos of Ron are priceless.
Local news: I noticed something kind of sad yesterday, the old Blue Ridge Cinema building has been almost completely torn down. It had stood vacant for years, not a good thing. Hopefully something good will be put up in its place. And that explains the loud crashing noises I heard the other day when I was out back working in my garden (I had blamed the auto body shop, perhaps I was mistaken).
Speaking of gardening, yes I planted tomatoes and cucumbers again this year. This time around I used chicken wire instead of plastic netting, and so far it's working much better. The evil squirrels can still go over the top (but as far as I can tell I've only lost one tomato; a green one at that). There are no holes chewed through low down, so I'm keeping the rabbits out. The plants* are big and healthy, and we've gotten quite a few tomatoes. Many more to come...if they all ripen at once, we may have to open a stand.
* What varieties did I plant? Glad you asked. Two Large Red Cherry tomato plants, three Jet Star, two Early Girl, one Super Beefsteak, and one Better Boy. The Cucumber seeds I planted a bit late, so we'll see how that goes.
And I saw a fun bumper sticker today, something to the effect of "It's too early in the morning to slay dragons".
I think I know this one. I'll wait, what do you think - a couple of days, and see if anyone chimes in with the answer first.
Hopefully I'll have my computer back soon, as good as new.
Until then, here's some random thoughts from the library computer, to pad this out a bit...
My friend Duane (one of the rocket people) checks this blog occasionally, so here's a message. Duane, I got the newsletter today, and I enjoyed the articles. Don't know yet if I'll make it to FFFF this year, but I hope to. Oh, and those high school era photos of Ron are priceless.
Local news: I noticed something kind of sad yesterday, the old Blue Ridge Cinema building has been almost completely torn down. It had stood vacant for years, not a good thing. Hopefully something good will be put up in its place. And that explains the loud crashing noises I heard the other day when I was out back working in my garden (I had blamed the auto body shop, perhaps I was mistaken).
Speaking of gardening, yes I planted tomatoes and cucumbers again this year. This time around I used chicken wire instead of plastic netting, and so far it's working much better. The evil squirrels can still go over the top (but as far as I can tell I've only lost one tomato; a green one at that). There are no holes chewed through low down, so I'm keeping the rabbits out. The plants* are big and healthy, and we've gotten quite a few tomatoes. Many more to come...if they all ripen at once, we may have to open a stand.
* What varieties did I plant? Glad you asked. Two Large Red Cherry tomato plants, three Jet Star, two Early Girl, one Super Beefsteak, and one Better Boy. The Cucumber seeds I planted a bit late, so we'll see how that goes.
And I saw a fun bumper sticker today, something to the effect of "It's too early in the morning to slay dragons".
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Taking up some slack
While Bob's computer has the crud, I'll jump in with another installment of the Lyrics Game. To review, I'll post some song lyrics and you astute Porch Heads name the tune. Try ever so hard not to Google for the answer.
Also, this is for fun, alas, we have no prizes to award. It's mainly amusement for me as I like to read the song lyrics for humor, creativity or other qualities. In other words, they are not necessarily difficult, though we can't rule out the possibility.
And now today's lyrics:
Just tell your hoodlum friend outside
You ain't got time to take a ride
Enjoy!
Also, this is for fun, alas, we have no prizes to award. It's mainly amusement for me as I like to read the song lyrics for humor, creativity or other qualities. In other words, they are not necessarily difficult, though we can't rule out the possibility.
And now today's lyrics:
Just tell your hoodlum friend outside
You ain't got time to take a ride
Enjoy!
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