TELEVISION:
My earliest memories of TV was when we lived in Boise on Clover lane behind the Old Soldiers Home. I remember watching Flash Gordon, Those shows scared me and I would hide in the hallway and peek around the corner. Flash was always in trouble. I also watched lots of Our Gang Comedies. Those stories always had a plot. A granny who is very poor finds out that she gave away her stocks papers to the kids so they could tie them to their kites. They had an adventure following a giant into a cave and discovered treasure. Then someone played truant and everyone else got to go to an amusement park. They were always putting together some kind of transportation involving a mule. At one time of the kids was looking at an artichoke and said, “It might choke Artie but it won't choke me”. Darla was the object of affection by Alfalfa who sang. Spanky was the chubby kid getting into trouble.
Other TV shows were Miss Mary which I found boring. The Merry Milkman was ok. There were not many cartoons. Of course there were lots of I Love Lucy episodes. Favorite viewing night was Sunday there was the Ed Sullivan Show and Walt Disney. One of the favorites was Fess Parker playing he part of King of the Frontier Daniel Boone and Buddy Ebson was his side kick. The merchendise even sold a fake Coonskin cap. We were not indulged. I like the bad guy, Mike Fink who had a long boat which was propelled on the river by pushing oars. I remember a trick rifle shot involving shooting holding the rifle backwards over his shoulder and using a mirror to aim.
The next wonder was that on a trip to Petaluma dad told us that TV lasted all evening, did not stop at 5 pm. Yay.
The most channels Boise had was ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS. Commercials consisted of Ipana Toothpaste, Hiawatha carpets and See the USA in your Chevrolet. Very unlike infomercials and big Pharma. Ugh.
Some of my favorite early shows were Rod Serlings Twilight Zone, The other one and Mission Impossible. I was looking up the stars on Mission and Leonard Nimoy was Paris. I do not remembe him at all.
