Last week’s blog post began our throwback adventure to year 1966.  We looked at life through the eyes of a 10-year old boy– going to the movies, dreaming about toys, watching TV commercials, and going to school.  We also looked at how real life crashes in on a 10-year old when coming face-to-face with the real world. (Don’t miss Part 1 if you haven’t read it yet.)  Let’s keep looking at what life was like 50 years ago.  How about this for starters:

Anyone remember this?  I remember kids doing it in the school hallways.  A Teacher’s nightmare!!

In 1966 TV commercials told us everything we needed to know about TOYS, CANDY, AND BREAKFAST CEREALS.  I had childhood issues with a slight allergy to chocolate, and it was devastating when Mom would not buy the latest rage– Cocoa Puffs!  Every morning at school I heard kids brag about eating breakfast where the milk magically turned into chocolate milk!  Every Saturday morning I had to endure the commercial where that obnoxious bird kept screaming, “I go cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs, I go cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs!”  (So unfair!)

 

And speaking of candy– anyone remember Chunky?   And Sugar Daddy?  And Banana Splits?  To me the best candy of all was– a pack of Fizzies.  They were little round things that looked like Alka-Seltzer tablets.  Dropping one of them into a cup of water turned it into an effervescent kool-aid type drink.  Everyone’s favorite flavor was the green fizzy.  They were valuable.  We used green fizzies as currency– trading them for favors.  I recall putting them straight into my mouth– allowing green bubbling slime to ooze out and drip down my chin– a most excellent way to gross out ten-year old girls.

TV was a big deal in 1966.  Batman debuted that year and was my FAVORITE show, airing every Saturday evening at six.  I remember the words, “POW, BANG, and CRASH” splashing across the screen during a cheesy fight scene (very cool), and recall hearing Robin shout, “Holy (whatever word fits) Batman!”

The girls liked the new show “That Girl” and all wanted to wear their hair like Marlo Thomas.  1966 was also the year that the popular show Bewitched featured the birth of Samantha and Darren’s first baby, Tabitha. That episode was a ratings bonanza.  It was also the year “Star Trek” was born, but I was not sophisticated enough to ever become a trekkie.

Because there were no video games, movie channels, and DVR’s in 1966, TV watching was limited to certain time slots.  It was not unusual for my friends and I to watch a weekly program in the evenings, and then creatively replay the episode together all week long– usually outside in the sunshine.

There was a fantastic program that only ran on ABC for one year that was a major playtime inspiration to us:  The Monroes.  The program debuted in September and only lasted until March of ’67.  (It was tough going up against The Beverly Hillbillies’ time slot.)

The series centered on five orphans trying to survive as a family on the Wyoming frontier.  Their parents die in an accident in the first episode and they try to carry on without them.  Clayt (18) and his sister, Kathy (16) became the caretakers for their younger siblings, Big Twin and Little Twin (both 12), and little Amy (8).  Of course, they had a loyal dog in the family as well.  Episode after episode they endured Indian raids, fires, animal attacks, and wicked drifters.  Still, the Monroe family survived!

My best friends made up a group that was perfect for reenactment of the Monroes.  I became Clayt; Cathy Kennedy played Kathy; Lee Hardegree and Walt Hill were Big Twin and Little Twin (Lee was taller than Walt); and my 4-year old sister, Donna, was little Amy.  Prince, my loyal Collie, completed our cast of six.  A rusty red wagon and wheelbarrow served as our conestoga wagons for the weekly trek to and from my front yard to my backyard.  What happened during our dangerous trek depended entirely on our collective imagination.

In the corner of my backyard was an oversized doghouse built especially for Prince.  One of us got the brilliant idea to imagine the doghouse as our frontier cabin.  It looked a bit like a log cabin since it was built with horizontal 1 x 6 boards with open cracks in-between them, rather than with solid sheets of plywood.  It was perfect for our wilderness cabin.

“Hurry everyone, get inside the cabin and stay quiet,” I ordered.  “A Cheyenne war party is right behind us!”  ALL OF US, including Prince, somehow squeezed into the doghouse and pulled the homemade door shut behind us.  Twisted together like pretzels we waited on the Cheyenne war party to pass by us.

“OK, they’re gone.  We’re safe!” I announced a couple of minutes later.  Little Twin, who was the last one inside gave the door a little push– it was jammed!

“It’s stuck!” he yelled.  Within seconds, complete bedlam erupted inside the Monroe cabin.  I’m talking for-real chaos.  I was sardined in the back corner yelling, “Kick the door !”  Donna started crying, Prince started barking, and Lee and Walt tried to re-position their pretzeled legs to where one of them could push against the door.  In panic Cathy screamed, “Y’all, I can’t breathe,” then jammed her lips against the horizontal board cracks and began sucking air like a Hoover vacuum.  It was a moment that forever defined pandemonium for me.

Lee worked his long legs around to finally dislodge the door.  All six of us spilled out of the doghouse and onto the turf, half-relieved and half-terrified.  Like the TV series series on ABC, we quickly cancelled our love affair with the Monroes.  It was a brief but memorable run.

Experts say that humans bond through enduring times of crisis together.  Perhaps that’s why, although scattered, we all still share a great fondness for each other.  Friends matter, and memories are golden.

“A friend loves at all times,and a brother is born for a time of adversity.”   Proverbs 17:17  

 

 

 

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