Category: Television

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Animals Driving Food Health Holidays Home Shopping Television

Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

1.  It’s Veterans Day all across the great United States Of America, and it’s the Federal Holiday each year that means the most to me personally. I stopped everything that I was doing at exactly 11:11 AM this morning. I checked out the big three cable news networks – Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC – and not a single one of them had LIVE coverage of any Veterans Day ceremony anywhere. What a shame.

2.  On both Saturday and Sunday I drove more than 80 miles each day. That’s about 4 times my daily average. It was an exhausting first-half of my long holiday weekend, and a more peaceful and quiet second-half (yesterday and today). I actually felt a real subtle hint of a possible 8TH cold in 12 months coming on this morning. I took an extra 500 MG Vitamin C tablet to fight this fight because I don’t have time for another cold this week – or next week.

3.  This morning I went to Publix – where shopping is a pleasure – about 10 minutes after they opened for business shortly after 7 AM. I did my grocery shopping for the next couple of weeks. After that I went to McDonald’s to pick-up breakfast. You get faster service when you actually get out of your car, walk in to the joint, and order the food face-to-face to an actual human being (rather than a drive-thru speaker).

4.  I did a little mini ‘The Major’s Walk-A-Thon’ this morning. I walked to and from the clubhouse near the main entrance of my neighbourhood. That’s a little more than a half-a-mile round-trip. I had to do my annual vehicle registration there. Prior to last year a lazy me would have driven it. Nowadays I see a mile or two and think ‘Walk-A-Thon’. I saw a new cat during this mini walk. The feline looked at me from afar and sighed to himself or herself, ‘Friend – Not Foe’.

5.  Ford Championship Weekend is just two days away at our Homestead-Miami Speedway, so you just know what that means – tens of thousands of out-of-town tourists and NASCAR fans galore descending on our home turf spending their hard-earned money in our stores and restaurants. Show them respect. Be nice to them. Welcome them to our fine city. Invite them back for more fun.

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History Life Television

Saturday Night Retro

Flashback with me – won’t you ? – to 1984. Some of you weren’t even born back then, and the rest of us were 24 years younger. I was 16-years-old coming in to 1984, and 17-years-old at the halfway point. This Junior became a Senior in ’84 !

I was the only one in the family that knew how to program our Sony Betamax VCR. I recorded Johnny Carson, David Letterman, and “Saturday Night Live !” on a regular basis, and we watched those shows together as a family. My ‘home computer’ at the time consisted of a giant keyboard, a cassette tape drive, and as a monitor – our living den’s television set tuned in to VHF Channel 3. My favourite hour of television occurred on Sunday nights from 9 PM to 10 PM on CBS-TV when it was “The Jeffersons” followed by “Alice”. Both shows were nearing the end of their respective long runs, and they just got better and better as they got older and older. I also enjoyed watching “TV’s Bloopers & Practical Jokes” on Monday nights at 8 PM on NBC-TV with Dick Clark and Ed McMahon.

In 1984 I had two jobs – both as a newspaper carrier. I delivered the world-famous “Washington Post” early every morning in the dark, and then in the afternoon during the week I delivered the newer “Washington Times“. I made lots of money on my own doing this, and I had plenty of it to buy my very first car – a beige 1980 Chevy Citation. I didn’t own that car for very long because I eventually moved overseas to the U.K. courtesy of the United States Air Force.

1984 was a cool year in my young life. I looked cool like this:

Me At 16
Me At 16

… And my final Junior year report card looked like this:

My Report Card - June 1984
My Report Card - June 1984

Would you believe that I actually made the Honor Roll during my Senior year in High School (1984-1985) with all As and Bs ?

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Television

Monday Night Countdown

Here’s a countdown that I’ve wanted to do for awhile now, but every time I thought about doing it another countdown idea came to my mind that sounded more fun to do – so I ended up doing that one instead. This week I had no better ideas than this.

It’s my countdown of my TOP 5 personal favourite basic cable television networks. I’m currently looking at a handwritten list of over 20 cable networks that I watch on at least an occasional basis. I circled 5 of them because these are the ones that stand out above the rest. These are the ones that I’d be upset the most if I lost access to them. Check it out:

5.  Travel Channel

4.  A&E – Real Life. Drama.

3.  Discovery Channel

2.  History

1.  tru TV – Not Reality. Actuality.

Categories
History Home Life Television Travel

Saturday Night Retro

Last Saturday night we flashed back 35 years ago to 1973. This week I’m taking you even further back – on a trip to 1969.

As the year began I was 18 months old and beginning to walk alone – without braces (apparently due to pigeon toe / curved feet). I started the year in Selma Alabama (where I was born), but then we moved to Greenbelt Maryland (very near NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center). We lived in the brand new Chelsea Wood rental apartment complex on Greenbelt Road. 40 years later that apartment complex still stands, but they are now condominiums (privately owned). It looks exactly the same today (at least on the outside) as it did all of those years ago.

Chelsea Wood, Greenbelt Maryland
Chelsea Wood, Greenbelt Maryland

We lived in a first-floor unit, and I remember an early birthday party for me with a bunch of the local toddlers that was held right out front of our apartment building in the lush grassy area.

One of my lifelong wishes before it’s too late is to return to the Prince Georges County Maryland region of the Washington D.C. area for a few days. I’d like to spend some quality time retracing the early years of my life through the various neighbourhoods and communities that I lived in and spent a lot of time in for 11 years in Greenbelt, Bowie, Glenn Dale, Lanham, Seabrook, New Carrollton, and Riverdale. After all it was there where the trunk of my life was developed.

I’ve stated before that my childhood was for the most part forgettable and downright miserable; however, it wasn’t all a blur, and it wasn’t all bad either. There were a lot of good times that I experienced during those early years of my life, and I remember much of them to this day. Perhaps it was the good times that I have purposely chosen to remember after all of these years. 

As a curious two-year-old toddler living in my apartment with my Mom and Dad I remember getting bathed in the kitchen sink. I also remember watching and enjoying “Rowan And Martin’s Laugh-In” every Monday night at 8 PM on NBC-TV. That was family night in front of the tube. The entire nation was watching.