By Kathy Schaeffer.
So many memories of the current baby boomer generation revolve around the television set and the shows of any given decade of the 20th century. Now that we are getting further into the 21st century, things are different in what is allowed to be shown, but memorable family times can still be found around the television set just like in the past.
Gone are days of Lucy and Ricky Ricardo or Ward and June Cleaver when it was improper to show married people sleeping in the same bed. Gone are the days of many innocent things that are no longer considered innocent. Today every word and action has to be carefully monitored and sometimes we wonder if there are "censors" at work at all. But this is not a bad thing because the good and the bad sides of television, just as with the internet, both exist. Viewers (and surfers in the case of the internet) need to choose which side to visit.
During the Vietnam Era, as one example, news was often slow in getting back to the public. With today's cable and even more sophisticated capabilities, suddenly things from wars to state funerals to horrid natural disasters are no longer only reported hours or days later, they are brought live right into millions of living rooms around the world. This, too, is not a bad thing because television viewers are more news savvy than ever before and keeping up to date on current events is important to them.
No one is sure if there will ever be another "friend" to children such as the late Captain Kangaroo or Mister Rogers, but that doesn't mean that parents and children can't spend time together with the shows that are available in today's much different but still often family-oriented world. And thanks to the wonderful world of syndication, our children and their children are still able to meet the likes of Lucy and Ricky or Ward and June.
Memories of the television shows of past eras often bring smiles many years later. Some examples are things we never took time to realize back then in "the good old days" while huddling around the television set. For instance, at one time the major Saturday night activity for young families was to gather everyone around to watch Gilligan's Island. Did anyone at the time question why the Howells had packed trucks full of money, or Ginger had all those glittering dresses with her for what they all assumed was going to be "a three hour tour?"
Sunday nights for many years were devoted to Walt Disney and his "Wonderful World of Disney." There were days when school children rushed home to catch part of Dark Shadows and then later in time, The Brady Bunch, and usually choosing that over doing homework immediately. It just seemed like a normal part of a school day. These are all components of a nation's collective memory scrapbook, and all worthy of bringing smiles decades later.
Any article about television memories would be negligent in not mentioning the commercials of bygone eras as well as the regular shows. Ask anyone for an old TV jingle they remember and they will always sing it with a smile. It opened up a whole new way to advertise and apparently it was very effective considering we *do* still remember those jingles.
Another sweet memory from the past for many folks is the way that very often, memories of food are conjured up in the same thoughts as memories of television. This might be a huge bowl of popcorn or chips, or piping hot bowls of chili while watching Sunday afternoon football. The aroma of turkey cooking while watching a Thanksgiving Day parade, or munching on Christmas cookies and drinking eggnog while crying through It's A Wonderful Life for the umpteenth time, are all memories that marry food and television. Of course, the creators of the TV dinner consummated this love affair long ago, when in the mid 1950s, suddenly a whole meal could be cooked in one container and eaten, as the name suggests, while watching television.
Everything is much more complicated now with new technologies emerging almost constantly; and this includes television. For the first few decades of popularity, they looked basically the same and were the same size and color. In the initial decade of the television, that big box standing in your living room was a status symbol. Today it is probably safe to say that there are not many homes without a television, if not more than one set. There are many different sizes, shapes, and colors from which to choose, but still the lure of "watching TV" is the same as it has always been.
Memories of family times around the television may not have the same content in the future as they had in the past or present, but they will exist. The children of today will have memories of seeing terrible things happen in front of their eyes as if they had been there, but they will also have sweet memories of the shows they are growing up with and learning from. As the old adage says, "Everything changes, everything stays the same
