What a Wonderful World it Would Be

     When I was a boy, we lived in a deep valley in the middle of West Virginia, where TV reception was poor and so were we. Seriously, we had a single TV set. I remember when we got a 19 inch COLOR TV! What a day that was. The case was a deep gray and white, so when mom asked if it was color or black-and-white…we could honestly say…”Yes.” Awful, I know. I sincerely apologize to my mom for that. It was mean.

     The new TV sat on a small table at the end of our living room where everyone could gather to watch the single station we could get. WDTV Clarksburg, with as much snow as program, but it was as good as it gets to a kid who had never seen regular programming before. It was to us as though the Gods had come down from heaven and poured nectar into our eyes. You just can’t imagine the impact this had on our lives if you have grown up with cable.

     Later, we would move up on the mountain and get FOUR stations!!! I felt like a luxuriant man of leisure then. But when we lived in the valley, and magick was heavy in the air, we had one channel…CBS. Fortunately, The Wonderful World of Disney was on CBS and our eyes were widened by this program. Mom and dad were very careful with what we watched. An hour of gospel music on Sunday morning before church, maybe half an hour of The Bullwinkle/Rocky Squirrel show before school during the week, but WWoD was an EVENT each week.

     We would gather between the wood-burning stove and the TV during the winter months and be glued to the screen by Davey Crockett, or Benji, or The Alamo. Perhaps a Don Knotts/Tim Conway movie would be on and we would roll with laughter to the Apple Dumpling Gang or Bedknobs and Broomsticks.

     What a unique treat it was to share a few hours together as a family, watching such family-oriented and…wholesome…entertainment. It is a time that we can never reclaim, much to the detriment of children today. With so many media outlets/gaming platforms available now, I long for the simplistic days gone by. Today, to get that same closeness, we have to go out into the boonies and isolate the wee ones in random off-road events, but that is another story.

     For now, I wonder….what was your favorite WWoD moment? Did you have anything similar in your past? Dig deep, and bring up those smiles from your childhood to brighten our days.