Michael Elliott

Love this "collective Memory" stuff Richard.  A lot of fun to share.

Richard Maurer

Gordon you really nailed it, there were so many great parts of Rocky and Bull Winkle.  I didn't remember many of these until you mentioned them.  I think the the ultra cool way back machine was a part of the "Mr. Peabody's Improbable History".  Of course, if buy into the whole flying squirrel and moose, Rocky and Bull Winkle thing, you wouldn't have any problem considering the idea that Mr. Peabody is a dog who can take you back in history with his time machine.  Very imaginative and an opening to explore all kinds of topics.  I have to admit that I can't remember much about the details of "Fractured Fairy Tales" except they were irreverent and fun.  Maybe someone else can fill in a some details.

Richard Maurer

John, the topic of the mix of technology, entertainment and education is really complex and there are so many ways you can look at things.  As kids we were at the early stages of an explosive growth in the influence of technology on everyone's life, kids and adults.  There is no question that some aspects of technology can be very distracting.  I have been totally sucked into some computer games.  Not the kind were you have to have quick reflexes, but rather games that involve considerable imagination and finding unexpected approaches.  But I think the allure of most or all computer games is that you get instant feedback and you know that the computer will play be a set of rules.  So you get the feeling that if you hang in there, you can win.  Perhaps not a bad lesson.  But the lesson isn't so good if it keeps you doing anything else worthwhile.

Of course technology can be very enabling as you know from doing on-line geneology research.  It is an interesting question about how one could stimulate young students to use technology for more educational or productive uses rather than idle entertainment.  I don't have any real insight into this, but suspect it has something to do with their life goals and ambitions and their views of the prospects for achieving those goals.

Jack Fiskin

Can we ever forget Tom Hatton showing Popeye cartoons?  I think he was the one who turn squiggels in drawings.

John Vash

Yes Jack, Tom Hatten & Popeye followed Skipper Frank on channel 5 just about dinner time at my house.  That made for some, shall we say, lively discussions about eating at the dinner table.  Greg great shot of the former Jay Ward Studio.  I've got a 4 CD set of Rocky & Bullwinkle.  It has all the cartoons of Mr. Peabody & his boy Sherman & Fractured Fairytales   A few years later there came Huckleberry Hound, Quick Draw McGraw with Bubba Louie, Dudley Do Right, his GF Nell plus Snidley Whiplash.  Naturally I can't leave out  Yogi Bear & Boo Boo  Oh yes there were other cartoons on channel 13, like Felix the cat and that whole gang.  Oh my, where's Mr. Peabody's wayback machine when I need it?  I've a hankering for a nostalgia fix.

Mike Sheldrake

I still play Red Light - Green Light, but I do it with beer and there are no Red Lights!

Joan Elliott (Euans)

Linda Wonn (Carpenter)

Yes, Let's hear it for Rin Tin Tin! And Darla, the Little Rascals were an absolute delight as well. We were so fortunate to have had all these wonderful shows. 

John Vash

Joan, you didn't go off the rails.  Those were great shows also.  On my profile fotos there is a picture of my brother, myself & my best friend outside Fort Apache.  What a let down seeing what looked like a real fort only to find facades.  Still it was fun reinacting scenes from Rin Tin Tin.  I record (almost said tape) Lassie & Zorro for my Grandkidlets to watch after they finish their homework.  Oh, the Little Rascals, now there was comedy at it's finest.  I think Darla was my very first crush.

Michael Elliott

Loved R & B's opening credits.  Rocky and Bullwinkle are in a rowboat and they pull something out of the water:

Rocky:  Bullwinkle, looks like a message in a bottle.

Bullwinkle:  Fanmail from some flounder?

That's as good as it gets. 

Favorite stable of TV Westerns was Warner Bros:  Maverick, Sugarfoot, Cheyenne, Paladin etc.  Don't remember if Sam Peckinpah's The Rifleman was from Warner Bros but was a particular favorite for me. 

Greg is absolutely right about our class website.  Other social media websites have little interest to me--way too frenetic and demanding.  This class website is akin to old and new classmate friends sitting around the fire sharing memories and stories. 

Richard Maurer

Joan, great post about the westerns.  I was certainly a huge fan of the westerns.  I remember most vividly the ones you mentioned as must watch shows.  But there were others from the 1950s that I also enjoyed very much such as Hopalong Cassidy, the Ciscso Kid, Wild Bill Hickock and Sky King.  Loved them all.  So of course, one of my very early ambitions in life was to be a cowboy.  If I can find them, I think I have some pictures of a very young Rich Maurer in a cowboy costume.  Of course, I didn't achieve that ambition of becoming a cowboy.  Probably for the good of the cowboy tradition.

Mitch Wise

Richard you beat me to the last of the western shows I watched.  Been away a while and not watching the site.  Really great memories of all these show,  Cartoons and Westerns.   I agree with Greg, this really beats out Facebook.  Seems like all the context is among real friends from the past getting back together again.

Hope everyone is safe,  I know some of you live in the Hurricane's path.  So prayers on the way.

Joan Elliott (Euans)

Bobbie Bechtold (Ryan)

How many of you watched Davy Crockett?  I had my own coonskin cap and played with my brother and other kids in the neighborhood.  I remember some pretty dramatic death scenes as we'd spin around from being shot and would fall on the front yard with arms spread out. 

Lloyd Gladden

How about Spin and Marty.  I was a western nut.  Watched them all

Greg Cook

We all lived in the shadow of Disneyland and this was an afternoon staple (right after American Bandstand) on Channel 7 ABC

Greg Cook

Joan it was Rowdy Yates

Joan Elliott (Euans)

Richard Maurer

I can still hear the Davey Crockett theme song rattling around in my head.  The first verse goes:

Born on a mountain top in Tennessee

Greenest state in the land of the free

Raised in the woods so he knew ev'ry tree

Kilt him a be 'are when he was only three

Davy, Davy Crockett, king of the wild frontier

The show ran as a series on the Walt Disney show.  The Crockett series was enormously popular for Disney.  I think that the theme song was surprisingly successful on the pop charts.  And of course there was the merchandise including the coonskin caps.  Almost everyone, including some adults wore them.  I, my brother and my sister all had imitation coonskin caps (actually pretty feable attempts to make a cap that looked like the pelt of a racoon).  But it didn't matter that the caps weren't that great.  They were an adequate prop for us and other mini "frontiersmen/frontierswomen" to run around the neighborhood pretending we were performing great acts of bravery in the wilds of a newly settled country.

Michael Elliott

Wonderful stuff here. Davy was compelling. 1st song lyrics I remember memorizing. Do kids today have anything like that? We were pretty good at creating our own adventures. No video games. 

Rowdy Yates was on Rawhide with the best western theme song sung by Frankie Lane. Bonanza's was best instrumental.

Richard Maurer

Darla - you brought up another great tv show, the "Little Rascals".  I remember only a few character names, Buckwheat, Spunky and Butch.  The "Little Rascals" were very enterprising, willing to tweak the adult world in a  way I suspect none of would have considered as kids and they often had a lot of fun. They seemed to live a life well outside of the kind of events we would encounter in our Southern California childhood.  Perhaps, that was part of their appeal.  

There were a number of other 1950s comedy-oriented TV shows that I enjoyed.  One of my favorites was the short movies of Laurel and Hardy.  I think they began their career as showmen in the vaudeville era.  Stan Laurel was the skinny guy from England and Oliver Hardy was the much more ample American.  They were always getting in a lot of trouble and Laurel was often whimpering and apologizing to Hardy for the problems.  This led to the  very frequently used line from Hardy,  "Well, here's another nice mess you've gotten me into". In the 1980s when we adopted two male cat siblings, we named them Stan & Ollie in honor of Laurel and Hardy.  Of course they couldn't live up to their namesakes, but they were a lot of fun.

You cannot mention comedy TV of the era without including the Three Stooges.  They got into a lot of trouble and they were always amusing.  I suspect that for most of us, they are another thing from our childhood era that is burned in our memory.

Mitch Wise

Hopefully you are all still TV fans.  My son was the film editor on the origianal CSI for 15 years.  Today, he edits Gotham, on Fox Monday nights.  A little Dark to say the least but a good story about Gotham pre Batman.

Greg Cook

For many of us 50th anniversaries are not too far off. So what is the secret of domestic tranquility?

John Vash

True story Greg?  Having met your wife last night, I found her to be very nice, demure & a refined lady, I find it hard to believe she would pack heat.  You never know though, it's the quite ones to look out for. 

Michael Elliott

For the baseball lovers among us, today marks the 60th anniversary of Don Larson's perfect game in the World Series.  An amazing feat and one of baseball's most iconic achievements.  It has never again been matched in World Series competition.  Not only has no one pitched another perfecto, but no one has pitched a no-hitter in the Championship series.  Ironically, Larson was never considered a dominating pitcher.  He played for 7 different teams in his career and posted a career record of 81 wins and 91 losses.  His career ERA of 3.78 shows that he was quite successful at his position nonethless.