Are You In My Photo?

As Father’s Day draws to a close, I got to thinking about the TV dads we grew up with. Did you ever wish you had one of them as your own father? Sure, some of them were portrayed as lovable idiots, but a lot of them were idealized as wise, kind, and always having the right answers. Who was your dream dad when you were growing up?

Come on, we all had one. My first was Rowdy Yates on Rawhide. The show debuted when I was only six, so it must have been at least a few seasons in that he won my prepubescent heart. When I was 12 I fell for Illya Kuryakin on The Man From U.N.C.L.E. And shortly after that I was head over heels for the aloof but oh-so-sexy Mr. Spock on Star Trek. What about you? What t.v. character was your first major crush?

Here’s a comedy sports game my daughter taught me. It goes like this: 185 pencils walk into a bar. The bartender says “Hey, we don’t serve pencils here. Get out”. The pencils say “Oh, what’s the point?” Okay, so the game is you make up the subject of the joke, and the next person has to fill in the punchline. Try it! I’ll start the joke, you fill in the punchline, and then you start the next joke, so someone else can fill in the punchline. Get it? Okay, here goes. 185 sesame seed bagels walk into a bar. The bartender says “Hey, we don’t serve bagels here. Get out”. The bagels say - - -

Looking at Jasmine’s photos of the “Race for the Cure”, and her photo of the rally to “Save Wilson College” made me appreciate how much my parents’ generation laid the groundwork for the social organizing that routinely happens today. As a young child I remember hearing about the civil rights marches and peace vigils. In high school I helped organize a “walk against hunger” to benefit an impoverished local community, which was still a farily novel concept at the time. Since then I have participated in marches and rallies for a number of political and philanthropic causes. What about you? What have you walked, marched, or rallied for (or against)?

Okay, we had this as the topic of the day a couple of months ago but that was before we really had the site up and running, so we wanted to pose this question again now that we’re getting more site visitors. Which generation has it the best–kids today with their iPods, instant messaging, TiVo, and other gadgets, or earlier generations with their freedom to play outside, less structured lives, and greater innocence?

Okay, I just have to come out and say it. Last night’s season ending episode of “Lost” was just the worst cliffhanger ever. I mean, it didn’t make me feel intrigued at all, just angry and depressed. I won’t go on about it, since there are (I am sure) forums a’plenty for that purpose, but it did get me to thinking about some of the classic cliffhangers from the last 5 decades. The famous “Who shot J.R.” is, of course, a classic example, but there were others that were pretty great. Like, does anyone remember that season-ending episode of “Cheers” where Sam proposes to someone over the phone — but we don’t know WHO? Or the “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” cliffhanger where she ends up sacrificing her life to save the world (again)? I would like to know what season (or series) endings you remember as being really good — or just dreadful?

It seems to me that every generation tends to wish, at some point, that they had been born into a different era. For instance, the children of the 60’s (like me), romanticized the 1950’s to a ridiculous extent, imagining a ficticious “simpler” time of leather jackets, car hops on roller skates, dances at the gym and wholesome, “happy days”. Of course, this ignored the reality of oppressive racism, sexism, McCarthyism, the Korean War, the Cold War and backyard bomb shelters, but what the heck — I mean, roller skating car hops! So I’ve been wondering — do any of today’s youth wish they had been teenagers in the 60’s or 70’s? Will future generations long for the golden days of the double zeroes? What about you? Do you ever wish you were born into a different era — and if so, which one?

Obviously this topic is for people who are old enough to remember when color TVs were new and only in a few homes. What was your first memory of a color TV show? Was it at your own house or a friend’s?

Which generation of kids has the best deal? The current crop with their iPods and MySpace, or the previous generations who had fewer gadgets but more freedom and safety to play outside?