TV Land
Well I try and force myself to watch at least a little TV each and every night. Sometimes I catch snippets of The History Channel, or PBS, or perhaps something on A&E. But if all else fails I make myself watch at least one half hour of the educational programming known as Leave it to Beaver. Pure pablum, escapism, frivolity you say. Damn right I say. But.....the Cleaver household was my own. This dates me. Beaver and I were the same age, and I had an older brother for whom everything came easily, and in whose shadow I seemed to live. My Mom was a "housewife" always home homemaking and waiting for Ward...er Wally, my Dad, to come home. Just like the Beav, we heard, "wait till your father" gets home.
The 50's appliances in the kitchen on Elm Street [the old Cleaver house] look like old friends to me. We sat down to eat homecooked food as a family every night. The boys room looks like mine, we hung college pennants on the wall. This was a great time for kids. What we did for fun was roam, we made forts, we rode our bikes, we went fishing after school. We didn't have "planned activities" ad infinitum. We created our own fun with our inventiveness. We went to vacant lots, we set small fires, we got into minor trouble.
And the cast of characters on Leave it to Beaver......We had them all as friends, my older brother and I. We had your goofy Lumpy's, we had the nerdy Tooey's, and of course there was an Eddie Haskell. My friends were the Gilberts, the Richards and the Larry Mondelo's of the world. Larry Mondelo...the quintessential role model for my childhood. Larry almost brings a tear to my eyes remembering the times my own personal real life Larry and I had.
But, of course, we all grew up into mostly responsible adults with our share of problems and the need to face the realities of life. Perhaps the parents of Rusty Stevens, the young actor who played Larry, knew this. After about the 4th year of the show, his father was transferred to Ohio. The parents told Rusty that his acting days were over and they all moved on and that was the last of Larry, who turned back into a real person.
Well I try and force myself to watch at least a little TV each and every night. Sometimes I catch snippets of The History Channel, or PBS, or perhaps something on A&E. But if all else fails I make myself watch at least one half hour of the educational programming known as Leave it to Beaver. Pure pablum, escapism, frivolity you say. Damn right I say. But.....the Cleaver household was my own. This dates me. Beaver and I were the same age, and I had an older brother for whom everything came easily, and in whose shadow I seemed to live. My Mom was a "housewife" always home homemaking and waiting for Ward...er Wally, my Dad, to come home. Just like the Beav, we heard, "wait till your father" gets home.
The 50's appliances in the kitchen on Elm Street [the old Cleaver house] look like old friends to me. We sat down to eat homecooked food as a family every night. The boys room looks like mine, we hung college pennants on the wall. This was a great time for kids. What we did for fun was roam, we made forts, we rode our bikes, we went fishing after school. We didn't have "planned activities" ad infinitum. We created our own fun with our inventiveness. We went to vacant lots, we set small fires, we got into minor trouble.
And the cast of characters on Leave it to Beaver......We had them all as friends, my older brother and I. We had your goofy Lumpy's, we had the nerdy Tooey's, and of course there was an Eddie Haskell. My friends were the Gilberts, the Richards and the Larry Mondelo's of the world. Larry Mondelo...the quintessential role model for my childhood. Larry almost brings a tear to my eyes remembering the times my own personal real life Larry and I had.
But, of course, we all grew up into mostly responsible adults with our share of problems and the need to face the realities of life. Perhaps the parents of Rusty Stevens, the young actor who played Larry, knew this. After about the 4th year of the show, his father was transferred to Ohio. The parents told Rusty that his acting days were over and they all moved on and that was the last of Larry, who turned back into a real person.
