"Ron in Radio Heaven" wrote in message
...
I was in the 6th grade when JFK was killed and the
Beatles first came on the scene.
It was a very interesting time to be growing up.

Watched every space shot there was, just eat it up.
Got my first transistor radio for my birthday
just before Alan Shepard's first sub orbital flight,
a little green Motorola that I still have.
In the forth grade my teacher asked me to bring my
radio to class the next day so we could listen to John Glen
first real orbital flight... I got to sit in class all day listening
with my ear phone with instructions to interrupt if anything
interesting happened. I was the RADIO MAN, it ruined me.

73 all,

Ron
http://radioheaven.homestead.com/



We had some cool heroes back then with the space program going on! I don't
think too many things in my life have given me the same feeling of seeing
Neil Armstrong on a old black and white tv put his foot down on the moon
other than the birth of my children. There will never ever be greater test
pilots and astronauts than we had in the 50s and 60s, all the rest just walk
in their shadows.

BH

Gordon Richmond wrote:
William Sommerwerck wrote:
Television worth watching,
The Soparanos, Mythbusters, and The Simpsons/King of the
Hill/South Park, to name just a handful of great shows.
My point was about "television worth watching".
Well, "worth watching" and "great shows" must be a matter of personal
opinion...

I'm not a particularly religious person and certainly not a member of
the "Religious Right" (and will gladly swear like a sailor when called
for), but IMHO, South Park is, for lack of a better term, quite
degenerate. Talk about morality "sliding down the slippery slope", that
show seems to have to slid down to just about the bottom of said slope.

A large majority of the "popular" network shows are infantile. Had a TV
on the bench a year or so ago, can't remember the name of the show but
my wife said it was one of the top two or three.

On the show, they were talking about having attended a lecture about
"homo erectus".

First actor: "He said homo". Tee-hee, giggle giggle, canned laughter

Second actor: "Oh, he said erect". Tee-hee, giggle giggle, canned laughter

Maybe that's funny--if you're in the Third Grade.

Sorry, but IMHO, a large majority of network TV is truly mindless pap.

You're welcome to your opinion, but if you think this is the Golden (or
Platinum) Age of TV, then I've got some nice Florida land I'd like to
sell to you... :-)

Well, I'm not a big fan of TV in general, or South Park in particular,

nor am I

but I've seen
enough episodes of the show to understand that it relentlessly SATIRIZES political
correctness and wishy-washy Liberalism and immorality.

But I also know that some people just don't "get" satire.

Well, I'm not sure if that was a "shot" at me or not grin...but I get
and enjoy satire as well as the next person.

But it -is- interesting (and dare I say, ironic) that you feel they need
to use "utter vulgarity" and "outrageous tastelessness" to satirize
immorality. I still contend that is purely gratuitous and a few more
steps down the slippery slope.

But it -is- interesting (and dare I say, ironic) that you feel they
need to use "utter vulgarity" and "outrageous tastelessness"
to satirize immorality. I still contend that is purely gratuitous
and a few more steps down the slippery slope.

Potentially. But it's obvious (to me, anyway) that "South Park" is largely
serious about what it does. I think most viewers agree, and don't see the
program as _promoting_ gratuitous tastelessness or vulgarity. It's so over
the top, anyway, that it would be hard to "improve" on it, even if one
wanted to.

In fairness to your point of view, there's an early episode -- "Pink Eye" --
involving the conversion of people to zombies after being injected with a
particular condiment (I forget which). It's hilariously gross, merely for
the sake of being gross. Then, of course, there was the gratuitous weekly
death of Kenny, which was eventually -- uh -- killed, due to its no longer
being particularly funny -- and their running out of ideas of how to off
him.

There was an episode in which the S word is spoken (though bleeped) several
hundred times, resulting in the appearance of a highly destructive demon.
After that, "South Park" no longer uses that word. (Correct me if I'm wrong
on this.) I don't think the creators were being hypocritical or self-serving
in suggesting that this word is not needed in everyday speech.

"South Park" is one of those TV programs that makes you glad freedom of
speech is protected in this country.

PS: Stan Freberg was a master at offending people with G-rated material.

Ron in Radio Heaven wrote:
Brian Hill wrote:
I don't think too many things in my life have given me the same
feeling of seeing Neil Armstrong on a old black and white tv put his
foot down on the moon

That was one of the best birthday presents I've ever gotten,
July 20 1969 was my 17th birthday.
I had to threaten to quit my summer job at the grocery store
cause the boss wanted me to work that night.
I've got a pretty good collection of Apollo 11 stuff, one of these
days I'm going to take some photos of it and do a web page.

Ron
http://radioheaven.homestead.com/
I can still remember that night watching the first moon walk on an old
BW Emerson TV in my basement while shooting pool with friends. I
repaired the set and put a large speaker in the cabinet(small console)
and had an FM converter on top made by Regency. For me growing up in the
50's was a gift I will always cherish.

Phil Nelson wrote:
Nobody in Salt Lake ever locked their doors

Don't tell anyone, but in our previous old country-ish house outside Redmond
WA, we never locked the doors. Too far off the path for anyone to bother.
Plus, we had neighbors with guns.

When we left on a longer vacation, I would make a show of locking the front
door, to instruct our kids that locking up is a Good Thing, but a child
could have gotten into the house within a minute or two.

Phil Nelson



Agreed. I lived in West Los Angeles, and we never locked our doors when
we were at home until about 1968 or so. We didn't bother locking the
doors when we were off for just a quick trip to the market or something
like that either.

We DID lock up when leaving overnight.

One should recall, from the old days, that if you were sitting in your
house, and someone knocked on the door, it would go like this:

Visitor: knock, knock
Homeowner: "Who's there?"
Visitor: "Joe Blow"
Homeowner: "Oh, come in!"

and the visitor would enter, finding the homeowner still seated or
otherwise doing what they had been doing before the knock. Only if the
knocker was unknown or much anticipated, or a VIP, or someone who would
be dealt with at the door (postman, or salesperson for example) would
the homeowner get up and answer the door in person. Neighbors, friends,
regularly visiting family, etc. let themselves in.

This was the norm for everyone I knew when I was a child. It all changed
in the late 1960s, and if you look at crime statistics from the period,
you will see why.

I've said it before and I will repeat that this is one of the
fundamental changes as we went from the "I Love Lucy" world to the "All
in the Family" world.

Oh, and for the record, I recall very vividly, watching the first man on
the moon at my friend Charlie's house, on the floor in front of a Zenith
console B&W television. His parents still live in the same house, with
some of the same furniture (now recovered).

I also remember watching Nixon being inaugurated, (1969) in class in 3rd
grade. This was the first time we ever had a television in class.

Best Regards,

David

"DaveW" wrote in message
news:fzhmi.252$SM6.98@trnddc01...
Oh, and for the record, I recall very vividly, watching the first man on
the moon at my friend Charlie's house, on the floor in front of a Zenith
console B&W television. His parents still live in the same house, with
some of the same furniture (now recovered).

I also remember watching Nixon being inaugurated, (1969) in class in 3rd
grade. This was the first time we ever had a television in class.

Best Regards,

David

I never got to see the moon landing (at least not live). We didn't own a
television for a lot of my childhood. When Kennedy was shot, it was during
my lunch hour (I lived at the time in Butte, MT). I first heard the news at
a newsstand between my house and the school on the way back to school. When
everyone was back from lunch, they called us all to the auditorium where
they had three 21" B/W TV's on the stage. The principal made an
announcement, then turned on the TV's and we watched the news for the rest
of the hour, then everyone was sent home.

For some of the early launches (Mercury, Gemini) the older grades in my
elementary school in Salt Lake were called out of class into the large
hallway to watch either the launch or the splashdown/recovery, depending
upon the time of day and which one was happening.

DaveW wrote:
I also remember watching Nixon being inaugurated, (1969) in class in 3rd
grade. This was the first time we ever had a television in class.


I remember watching Kennedy being sworn in during class in the third grade.
That was the first time I ever saw a TV in class.
It was also my last day at that elementary school.

A couple of months earlier we had moved into our new house which
was in a different school area. Since my dad's barber shop was near
the first school my mom wanted me to keep going there so I could
ride in with my dad. But is seem I was a little hell raiser and when they
found out about us moving, it turned out to be an easy way to get rid of me.
That was the only time I had to start at a new school in mid year.

I remember seeing JFK during the election when he came to Charlotte
on a campaign trip, we stood nest to the road and watched him ride
by on the back of a flat bed truck.

Ron
http://radioheaven.homestead.com/

I've said it before and I will repeat that this is one of the
fundamental changes as we went from the "I Love Lucy"
world to the "All in the Family" world.

The "I Love Lucy" world was a fantasy world that never existed.

Carter-k8vt wrote:

But it -is- interesting (and dare I say, ironic) that you feel they
need to use "utter vulgarity" and "outrageous tastelessness"
to satirize immorality. I still contend that is purely gratuitous
and a few more steps down the slippery slope.

William Sommerwerck wrote:

Potentially. But it's obvious (to me, anyway) that "South Park" is largely
serious about what it does.

Well, I'm not sure what their "it" is...although pushing us a bit
further down the slippery slope comes to mind.

I think most viewers agree, and don't see the
program as _promoting_ gratuitous tastelessness or vulgarity.

I don't see how you can separate the "promoting" from whatever else they
are attempting to do.

PS: Stan Freberg was a master at offending people with G-rated material.

Which proves that it CAN be done without resorting to trash talk. Back
when men were men and it was the REAL Golden Age. ;-)

Again, it looks like we can agree to disagree...

"Ron in Radio Heaven" wrote in message
...
DaveW wrote:
I also remember watching Nixon being inaugurated, (1969) in class in 3rd
grade. This was the first time we ever had a television in class.

Ron wrote:
I remember watching Kennedy being sworn in during class in the third
grade.
That was the first time I ever saw a TV in class.
It was also my last day at that elementary school.



In 1953 , I was in the 6th grade at 3rd ward school in Tipton Indiana
They brough in a a TV to watch Eisenhower ,first time a lot of us ever seen
a TV.

http://www.imagestation.com/album/pi...?id=4293442543

Garry WW9GT