Whenever Iwanski and I get together with his family, we talk about a lot of things, but inevitably, we end up talking about TV. Even when we are sitting around a campfire, we talk about TV. When we turned out the lights for Earth Hour about a month ago, we talked about TV (and came up with “Candlewang,” a fun new game based on a skit on a British TV show).
We are a TV-obsessed society. And I love it. Because I love TV.
So I started thinking about what it was like when I was a kid. As kids, were we as obsessed with TV then as we are now? And then I remembered the types of “pretend” that we did when we were kids. Here are some examples:
1. We had this old red couch in our basement, with two long cushions that were almost the exact height of my sister and me. My sister and I used to pretend that we were Laverne and Shirley (I believe she was Laverne and I was Shirley). Naturally, that meant that she got the “Lenny” pillow, while I was stuck with Squiggy. Oh, well, you can’t win ‘em all.
2. We also used the red couch cushions to play the tv show “Chips.” My sister and I were, of course, the girlfriends to Ponch and Jon. We were always the girlfriends to those red couch cushions. (Hmm, it is a bit sad to think that our main aspiration at that age was to “have boyfriends.”)
3. Whenever we’d get together with our cousins Lori and Lisa, we’d play “The Gong Show.” The contestants would dress up in my Mom’s old clothes and shoes and do stupid stuff, and the judges would then “gong” the losing contestant. (The “gong” was typically some type of stick or hammer slapped against one of my parents’ 1960’s green floral metal tv trays.)
4. My best friend and I would often play “The Dukes of Hazzard” with the neighborhood boys while riding our bikes outside. We had a Bo, a Luke, and even a Rosco P. Coltrane. However, we had two girls and only one Daisy Duke…what to do? Well, being the creative geniuses we were, we decided we'd have a Daisy 1 and a Daisy 2! How clever!
So yeah, I think we were a little obsessed with tv, even back then.
And as I write this, Iwanski just asked me if I’m ready to watch one of our Tivo’d tv shows. Hell yes, I’m ready! I’m always ready to watch tv.
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8 comments:
Ooh! And "Emergency," Carly! Remember that the red cushions were also "stand-ins" for Johnny and Roy? (I hardly remember the show... but I do remember the Johnny cushion and the Roy cushion.)
girlfriend,,,,, I laughed so dang hard reading this post!!!!! I too remember being a Daisy 1 and Daisy 2, but it was always better being Daisy #1!!!! How could you forget Happy Days? My Barbie always got to date "The Fonz" and my sister's Cindy doll dated Potsy... funny,,, as an adult I gravitate towards the Fonzy-type guys and my sister married a Potsy... what the heck kind of name is Potsy anyway? Was that his last name or something?
oh,,, one more thing,,, my sisters and I use to make these big huge signs that said something like "Fonzie You Are Cool!" and we while we were swinging outside and spotted an airplane we would hold up our signs in the air and hollar and scream and wave thinking that every plane that went by had Henry Winkler on board... we thought that Fonz would see our signs and tell the pilot to land in the field behind our house and then we would get his autograph...
So do the kids now play "reality tv shows"? Do they pretend they're forty-something at the 25 year reunion? Frightening!
Some how living the Dukes of Hazard seems more fun, even though they are my real neighbors, now that I live in rural north Georgia.
Oh yeah, Sheki! I forgot about that one! I don't remember the show, either--but I do remember the Johnny and Roy cushions! :)
Chick, I can't believe you played Daisy 1 and Daisy 2, too! How lame are we? And that Fonzie sign? LOL!! :)
Mathman, I never thought of that!--dear God, I hope they're not playing reality tv shows! LOL! :)
Being of the older generation...ummm...like when TV's first came out...the joke about watching the test pattern when there were no shows actually on the one and only channel? Me. On a round 10 inch screen in a HUGE mahagony cabinet. I liked Hoppalong Cassidy and put string on the arm of the couch and that was my horse. Thank you for visiting...I enjoyed reading your current posts.
Rosemary, I can't even imagine that! Loved the Hopalong Cassidy-string story. *smiles*
Ok, I'm way older than you but the games we played that were informed by TV were "Batman", "Wild, Wild West" and...wait for it..."Get Smart".
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