Cousin Mike was kind enough to reply to my take on "Lassie". I'll just repeat a few excerpts...
"Granddad
Scowden. For those who don't know our clan, he was not the fellow pictured at
the top of the page on his porch. No, this was my paternal grandfather whom Bob
and I do not share."
While it's true I didn't share that grandparent relationship, I had to mention here that I was invited along for a visit a few times, when I would be at Poppy's farm. The Scowdens were always hospitable, and I was always treated as if I were one of their own.
"After
some time on the farm, we headed across the bridge to Granddad and Grandma
Scowden's...Grandma would be in the kitchen where, later, we would probably be given
some vanilla ice cream."
I do remember being treated to ice cream.
"Meanwhile, Granddad had the Sunday shows on. 'Lassie' was one. He loved
'Lassie'."
Mike, on those occasions when I've come across a Lassie re-run, I've always thought of your Granddad. Even as a kid, I could tell he loved that show.
"Mutual of Omaha's 'Wild Kingdom' would also be on. As was mentioned,
it was a little more intense. Especially for Jim. It was Jim, while Marlin
narrated, who wrestled anacondas and crocodiles."
Yeah, and Marlin would say something like, "Be careful, Jim! They bite"!
Oh, and as for the Disney Humphrey the Bear cartoon, I thought it kind of looked familiar, but I wasn't sure. Until I clicked on the link and the cartoon unrolled before me. Oh yeah, I remember that one.
Old Fateful, indeed.
So Mike, did you see this cartoon before or after the "Smokey the Bear incident"?
Showing posts with label television. Show all posts
Showing posts with label television. Show all posts
Monday, March 10, 2014
Thursday, February 27, 2014
Lassie...what a strange show.
After an interesting day of job interviews – one each for me
and my wife – I sat down in front of the TV to put my mind in vacation mode for
a while. Flipping through the channels, I stopped at our COZI-TV
affiliate, and they were showing Lassie.
Now, I say the following in jest. Well, partly in jest anyway. I remember watching the show as a kid, and
you couldn’t help but like Lassie. Say
it with me folks, “Good girl, Lassie”!
What I saw tonight wasn’t one of those “Timmy fell down the
well…again” episodes. Apparently some
calamity had happened in the woods – maybe a forest fire – and Lassie took it
upon herself to go around and check up on the little woodland creatures, and
set things to rights if necessary.
(Hey, you know what you can find in the woods? Squirrels!
I saw one on Lassie. Okay, yeah I’m
sure that’s true, but they’re not what you’d call exotic. It’s not like you’d hear, “Dad! Let’s go to the woods. I know it’s a long way to drive, but I really
wanna see a squirrel. Please?” Look kid, just come over to my yard. We got your squirrels. Bring your traps along, and you can take as
many of those tomato thieves with you as you want! But I digress.)
Where was I? Oh yeah,
the woods…Lassie…little animals.
By the way for those of you new to our fine world, Lassie
was a big, good natured collie dog who apparently communicated by a combination
of body language and barking.
So a fox walks into the woods. Which sounds like a setup to a joke, “A fox,
a dog, and Indiana Jones walk into the woods”.
No, no, no. No joke, this fox was
a skinny, scrawny thing. Really pathetic
looking. Lassie watches the fox for a while,
then harangues it with a few barks. The
fox pauses, then ambles on a bit.
Then we see a quail. The
camera pans over a bit, and there’s the quail’s nest, with five eggs out in the
open, unprotected! Lassie looks at the
nest, then looks at the fox looking at the nest.
Foxes gotta eat too, you know.
For some reason this made me think of Solomon, preparing to
pass judgment on a difficult dispute.
What will Lassie’s decision be? “Okay
fox, you can eat two quail eggs, but no more than that. Got it”?
Then the camera cut to the branch of a nearby tree, where
sat an owl and two owl chicks in the nest.
“Okay, two quail eggs, and I’ll throw in one of the owl
chicks. But don’t you even think about
going for the other one”! But of course,
all you heard was barking. More barking.
It’s as if Lassie expected all the different forest animals
to understand Doggish. That would be
like one of us traveling to France or Germany and expecting everyone to
understand English.
What must be going through the minds of these animals? It wouldn’t matter much to them that Lassie
lived on a farm. No, when you live in
the woods you have to be tough. I can
almost hear them thinking, “Just who does this softy from the suburbs think she
is, coming here and poking her nose into our business”?
Friday, November 11, 2011
The Evening Rambler for 11-11-11 (Six digits...all ones!)
I don't really have a plan for this, and I don't know where I'll end up when I'm done writing. This will be an Evening Rambler in the truest sense of the words.
In fact, I fully expect I'll go away...and then come back and write more. It's like some kind of law of nature...
The sun rises in the east - then sets in the west.
What goes up - must come down.
Bob goes away - then he comes back.
Before I forget, thank you Mike for the last two posts while I was having writer's block. The color wheel for all the Crayola crayons was really nice to look at. I did notice a bit of history revisionism on their part, one of the colors (I think it was Peach), used to be called Flesh. Somewhere in the 80s I think it was, they had collected enough complaints that they decided to change the name. In fact, I think they released new colors at that time in other flesh tones, but none of them named Flesh.
Day to day family life here at the northern annex to The Porch has been in upheaval lately. My wife's dad has inoperable terminal cancer along with other medical conditions. He has been in a hospice house for a week or thereabouts, and he is receiving good care. So my wife is staying with her mom for a while, a truly good deed which I fully support.
Of course, that means someone else has to cook dinner here, as the budget won't allow fast food every night. Daughter number two cooked chicken alfredo two nights ago, and it was very tasty.
Tonight was my turn, so we activated a test of the Emergency Food Warning System..."Dad is cooking...should this become an actual emergency, you will be instructed to seek aid..."
That kind of thing. I followed the directions on the box of fish fillets. I also got a few potatoes out of the bag to bake in the microwave. They'd been in the bag for a while and had kind of an earthy smell to them, even after a good washing. So I went ahead and baked them, then peeled off the skin, cut them up and fried them. Surprisingly, everything turned out good. Along with some baby carrots and some apple slices, we did all right.
Back after Fringe...
...And I came back. Told ya.
That Fringe episode was easily the best so far of Season Four. I've got an idea of one thing they could do from here on, but I won't say; especially since I know most of my readers are not regular fans of the show. The writers will probably take it in some other direction anyway.
Why do I like Fringe so much? Well for starters, it has a mad scientist! And at least one alternate universe! Not to mention some great acting and characters you grow to care about. What more could you want in a strange TV show?
Before the day gets any older, I'll wish all veterans a Happy Veterans' Day! I'm not sure if I have any readers who are veterans, but I always like to thank those in uniform, and those who used to wear the uniform, for our freedoms. Really, any day is a good day to do that.
Six days ago there was an earthquake in Oklahome. I forget the magnitude - somewhere around 5 - but strong enough to be felt across several states, including Missouri. I talked to some people at church who said they felt it here in Independence. I didn't notice it, and neither did anyone in my family.
And something like a week before that, there was a large solar Coronal Mass Ejection and geomagnetic storm which gave rise to the best auroral display seen in the USA in years. The northern lights were seen as far south as Arkansas. I heard about it while they were visible, so I grabbed my wallet and keys, jumped in my car, and drove out beyond the city lights.
See, you should know something about me. I've wanted to see the northern lights ever since I learned about them in grade school...and I never have. It's still one of the top things on my "bucket list"...and I say still, because by the time I got beyond the light pollution and got out of my car, the northern lights had subsided. I stood in the dark for a good ten minutes anyway, long enough for my eyes to adjust. No joy.
Sometimes I just get the feeling that I miss out on things.
In fact, I fully expect I'll go away...and then come back and write more. It's like some kind of law of nature...
The sun rises in the east - then sets in the west.
What goes up - must come down.
Bob goes away - then he comes back.
Before I forget, thank you Mike for the last two posts while I was having writer's block. The color wheel for all the Crayola crayons was really nice to look at. I did notice a bit of history revisionism on their part, one of the colors (I think it was Peach), used to be called Flesh. Somewhere in the 80s I think it was, they had collected enough complaints that they decided to change the name. In fact, I think they released new colors at that time in other flesh tones, but none of them named Flesh.
Day to day family life here at the northern annex to The Porch has been in upheaval lately. My wife's dad has inoperable terminal cancer along with other medical conditions. He has been in a hospice house for a week or thereabouts, and he is receiving good care. So my wife is staying with her mom for a while, a truly good deed which I fully support.
Of course, that means someone else has to cook dinner here, as the budget won't allow fast food every night. Daughter number two cooked chicken alfredo two nights ago, and it was very tasty.
Tonight was my turn, so we activated a test of the Emergency Food Warning System..."Dad is cooking...should this become an actual emergency, you will be instructed to seek aid..."
That kind of thing. I followed the directions on the box of fish fillets. I also got a few potatoes out of the bag to bake in the microwave. They'd been in the bag for a while and had kind of an earthy smell to them, even after a good washing. So I went ahead and baked them, then peeled off the skin, cut them up and fried them. Surprisingly, everything turned out good. Along with some baby carrots and some apple slices, we did all right.
Back after Fringe...
...And I came back. Told ya.
That Fringe episode was easily the best so far of Season Four. I've got an idea of one thing they could do from here on, but I won't say; especially since I know most of my readers are not regular fans of the show. The writers will probably take it in some other direction anyway.
Why do I like Fringe so much? Well for starters, it has a mad scientist! And at least one alternate universe! Not to mention some great acting and characters you grow to care about. What more could you want in a strange TV show?
Before the day gets any older, I'll wish all veterans a Happy Veterans' Day! I'm not sure if I have any readers who are veterans, but I always like to thank those in uniform, and those who used to wear the uniform, for our freedoms. Really, any day is a good day to do that.
Six days ago there was an earthquake in Oklahome. I forget the magnitude - somewhere around 5 - but strong enough to be felt across several states, including Missouri. I talked to some people at church who said they felt it here in Independence. I didn't notice it, and neither did anyone in my family.
And something like a week before that, there was a large solar Coronal Mass Ejection and geomagnetic storm which gave rise to the best auroral display seen in the USA in years. The northern lights were seen as far south as Arkansas. I heard about it while they were visible, so I grabbed my wallet and keys, jumped in my car, and drove out beyond the city lights.
See, you should know something about me. I've wanted to see the northern lights ever since I learned about them in grade school...and I never have. It's still one of the top things on my "bucket list"...and I say still, because by the time I got beyond the light pollution and got out of my car, the northern lights had subsided. I stood in the dark for a good ten minutes anyway, long enough for my eyes to adjust. No joy.
Sometimes I just get the feeling that I miss out on things.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
The Evening Rambler for the beginning of Summer 2011
Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? The jury’s still out on that, tonight’s contestant dropped out rather than tackle a fifth grade social studies question. So we don’t know, and we didn’t get to see the question to test ourselves. He ended up with $7,500 though, so that’s not too shabby.
That is of course, if that’s an after tax figure, which I kind of doubt now that I think about it. It would be nice if game shows did that, figure the tax owed and send it to Uncle, since they’re giving away that money anyway. But what I heard years ago is that the contestants owe the tax on the winnings.
Seems like a shame though. You get all excited that you’ve just won $7,500, only to discover that you end up with only thirteen dollars and eighty-five cents.
Much has happened since my last Porch post. The big news in Missouri was the Joplin tornado, back on May 22 nd. Much has been said and I don’t know what I can add…the whole event and aftermath was so tragic. My sister and her family lived in Joplin in the late 1980s, so I’m somewhat familiar with the city. That area will never look the same, and the recovery will be a long one. Rumor has it that our church will send some people down there, but I’m not sure of the details, whether soon for cleanup assistance, or later for help in rebuilding. I’m not sure how much I’d be able to do if I went down there, but I have the desire to help in some way, if I can.
The Kansas City Star last Sunday had an amazing article, a collection of first person reports of survivors at St. John’s Hospital and nearby.
Since then, we’ve had several rounds of rain and thunderstorms here, but they’ve only blown the tornado sirens once. No damage here, though.
My garden is doing well with the rain and the warm weather. I have several blossoms on the tomato plants, and the cucumber plants are growing well. We got the fence up, but it still needs adjustment to make it varmint proof. I’ll have to get to that before any fruit sets on the vines. The potato plants are bigger and healthier than any I’ve ever had. I guess we finally got enough compost worked into the soil in that corner.
Father’s Day was a simple celebration. What I really wanted was to get my family around the table all at once and play a board game; we haven’t done that in too long. So we chose Pictionary, and my second daughter and my son teamed up and ran away with the game. They ought to enter a tournament.
My first daughter called from California, which was a delight. I told her that was the high point of the day so far, and said I wasn’t sure that would stand because her mom had made me a peach cobbler. I did get to “talk” to my one year old granddaughter. It wasn’t real words yet, just sounds on her part. Practice talk.
As it turned out, the cobbler was great, but I’ll rate the phone call the high point of the day.
Of course I thought of my Dad. The question came to mind, how would I respond if someone asked “What words of wisdom did your dad pass on to you?” I’m not sure how I’d reply, though I suppose if I give it some time and consideration, I'd come up with something. Dad was a very intelligent man, but also a quiet person most of the time. I’m sure he kept many things to himself, and yes, I should have asked more questions when I had the chance.
While my Mom gave me an appreciation for music and art, Dad passed to me his interest in things technical. His interest in aircraft became my interest in rocketry. And I have good memories of working side by side at his electronics workbench, putting together some Heathkit project or other.
I’ve come to believe my odd sense of humor is about an equal mix of my Mom’s general good humor and creativity (sometimes moving across the line into silliness), and Dad’s quiet, unexpected, dry humor. Interesting that I’ve included comparisons with Mom into these comments about Dad. When I think of one, I think of the other…the way it should be, I suppose. Anyway, here’s what I’ve written before on Father’s Day, if you’re interested.
One of our digital TV subchannels, 9.2, changed formats today. It was one of two weather channels, but now it’s a MeTV affiliate. So far, I’m impressed. I’ve watched parts of The Streets Of San Francisco, Gunsmoke, Bonanza, the original Hawaii Five-Oh, M*A*S*H, and the Dick Van Dyke Show.
Rumor has it they also have The Beverly Hillbillies, but I don’t know in what time slot. I’ve also read on the internet that this fall they’ll be adding Star Trek (I assume it’s The Original Series).
And…Batman.
Who needs cable?
Oh, and happy Summer!
That is of course, if that’s an after tax figure, which I kind of doubt now that I think about it. It would be nice if game shows did that, figure the tax owed and send it to Uncle, since they’re giving away that money anyway. But what I heard years ago is that the contestants owe the tax on the winnings.
Seems like a shame though. You get all excited that you’ve just won $7,500, only to discover that you end up with only thirteen dollars and eighty-five cents.
Much has happened since my last Porch post. The big news in Missouri was the Joplin tornado, back on May 22 nd. Much has been said and I don’t know what I can add…the whole event and aftermath was so tragic. My sister and her family lived in Joplin in the late 1980s, so I’m somewhat familiar with the city. That area will never look the same, and the recovery will be a long one. Rumor has it that our church will send some people down there, but I’m not sure of the details, whether soon for cleanup assistance, or later for help in rebuilding. I’m not sure how much I’d be able to do if I went down there, but I have the desire to help in some way, if I can.
The Kansas City Star last Sunday had an amazing article, a collection of first person reports of survivors at St. John’s Hospital and nearby.
Since then, we’ve had several rounds of rain and thunderstorms here, but they’ve only blown the tornado sirens once. No damage here, though.
My garden is doing well with the rain and the warm weather. I have several blossoms on the tomato plants, and the cucumber plants are growing well. We got the fence up, but it still needs adjustment to make it varmint proof. I’ll have to get to that before any fruit sets on the vines. The potato plants are bigger and healthier than any I’ve ever had. I guess we finally got enough compost worked into the soil in that corner.
Father’s Day was a simple celebration. What I really wanted was to get my family around the table all at once and play a board game; we haven’t done that in too long. So we chose Pictionary, and my second daughter and my son teamed up and ran away with the game. They ought to enter a tournament.
My first daughter called from California, which was a delight. I told her that was the high point of the day so far, and said I wasn’t sure that would stand because her mom had made me a peach cobbler. I did get to “talk” to my one year old granddaughter. It wasn’t real words yet, just sounds on her part. Practice talk.
As it turned out, the cobbler was great, but I’ll rate the phone call the high point of the day.
Of course I thought of my Dad. The question came to mind, how would I respond if someone asked “What words of wisdom did your dad pass on to you?” I’m not sure how I’d reply, though I suppose if I give it some time and consideration, I'd come up with something. Dad was a very intelligent man, but also a quiet person most of the time. I’m sure he kept many things to himself, and yes, I should have asked more questions when I had the chance.
While my Mom gave me an appreciation for music and art, Dad passed to me his interest in things technical. His interest in aircraft became my interest in rocketry. And I have good memories of working side by side at his electronics workbench, putting together some Heathkit project or other.
I’ve come to believe my odd sense of humor is about an equal mix of my Mom’s general good humor and creativity (sometimes moving across the line into silliness), and Dad’s quiet, unexpected, dry humor. Interesting that I’ve included comparisons with Mom into these comments about Dad. When I think of one, I think of the other…the way it should be, I suppose. Anyway, here’s what I’ve written before on Father’s Day, if you’re interested.
One of our digital TV subchannels, 9.2, changed formats today. It was one of two weather channels, but now it’s a MeTV affiliate. So far, I’m impressed. I’ve watched parts of The Streets Of San Francisco, Gunsmoke, Bonanza, the original Hawaii Five-Oh, M*A*S*H, and the Dick Van Dyke Show.
Rumor has it they also have The Beverly Hillbillies, but I don’t know in what time slot. I’ve also read on the internet that this fall they’ll be adding Star Trek (I assume it’s The Original Series).
And…Batman.
Who needs cable?
Oh, and happy Summer!
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Strange enough to post on The Porch? Why, yes!
Last night I was up late. I had a project to get ready for a presentation for our rocket club this afternoon (payloads for night launches). Daughter number two was home from college and everyone else was up late too; the family was watching "The Prince of Egypt" on DVD in the living room.
All that preamble to explain that I turned on the bedroom T.V. after midnight out of curiosity to see what was on, and I saw some really bizarre stop-action animation on 16-5. I watched long enough to appreciate the creativity, but I still had no idea what was going on, and closed captioning was hit and miss...it didn't help much.
My digital converter remote has a "tv guide" of sorts built in, so I pushed the appropriate button to find it was something called "The Legend of the Sky Kingdom" (click here for a trailer from Youtube). I searched for that on the internet, and Wikipedia had an entry. This is the first stop-action animation movie from Africa (Zimbabwe), and it was released in 2003. It's probably the lowest budget movie you've ever seen or ever will see, you might even say it was close to "no-budget". The characters (who I took to be robots at first) were all made from junk, as were the backgrounds - old broken computer keyboards in one scene. Apparently the camera they used was also home made from "junk" parts.
Maybe I should look around and see if it's available to rent so I can see the whole thing. I was entertained for the few minutes I watched, though I still can't say I get what was going on. It's impressive what you can make out of next to nothing when you put forth the creative effort.
All that preamble to explain that I turned on the bedroom T.V. after midnight out of curiosity to see what was on, and I saw some really bizarre stop-action animation on 16-5. I watched long enough to appreciate the creativity, but I still had no idea what was going on, and closed captioning was hit and miss...it didn't help much.
My digital converter remote has a "tv guide" of sorts built in, so I pushed the appropriate button to find it was something called "The Legend of the Sky Kingdom" (click here for a trailer from Youtube). I searched for that on the internet, and Wikipedia had an entry. This is the first stop-action animation movie from Africa (Zimbabwe), and it was released in 2003. It's probably the lowest budget movie you've ever seen or ever will see, you might even say it was close to "no-budget". The characters (who I took to be robots at first) were all made from junk, as were the backgrounds - old broken computer keyboards in one scene. Apparently the camera they used was also home made from "junk" parts.
Maybe I should look around and see if it's available to rent so I can see the whole thing. I was entertained for the few minutes I watched, though I still can't say I get what was going on. It's impressive what you can make out of next to nothing when you put forth the creative effort.
Friday, October 2, 2009
Astronomy stuff, part 2: What's on Earth tonight?
This isn't what I'd planned to post for my second installment in the Astronomy stuff series, but I just came across this and I couldn't resist.
It has stars! It's a map! It ties into pop culture! It involves broadcasting! I suppose you could ask for more, but how much do you want in one place?
This is from a site I just discovered, called Strange Maps. If you go here, you'll see the image along with some comments below. As a couple of people noted, the power of TV broadcasts shrinks to next to nothing beyond our solar system. It might be possible to pick up one of our broadcasts on a planet around another star, but it would be exceedingly difficult and require Much patience.
Sure an interesting idea and a neat image, though.
Hey Mike, it might be fun to come up with a version based on the dates of famous baseball highlights.
It has stars! It's a map! It ties into pop culture! It involves broadcasting! I suppose you could ask for more, but how much do you want in one place?
This is from a site I just discovered, called Strange Maps. If you go here, you'll see the image along with some comments below. As a couple of people noted, the power of TV broadcasts shrinks to next to nothing beyond our solar system. It might be possible to pick up one of our broadcasts on a planet around another star, but it would be exceedingly difficult and require Much patience.
Sure an interesting idea and a neat image, though.
Hey Mike, it might be fun to come up with a version based on the dates of famous baseball highlights.
Friday, August 28, 2009
The Evening Rambler for August 28, 2009
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.
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.
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