November 22, 2015-

Birthday Parties and Game Shows

 I just remembered that even at my own slumber party I got made fun out of which was so upsetting. I ran upstairs where I stayed for a few minutes and was crying a little. I think that was in 1981 and that 8 or 9 of my classmates were at it. Mom knitted mittens for all of them. We were sleeping in our furnished cellar.

   Something kind of funny did happen that night. We looked out the window and saw the shadow of someone smoking a cigarette which did scare us but it just turned out to be my Aunt Joan.

   Why did a few of us put a paper plate with potato chips on it on the stomach of Sandy who was sleeping? That was sort of crazy. I don’t recall what her reaction to that was.

   I was at Sandy’s b-day party and also 3 slumber type ones- Nancy, Michelle G and Ellen’s. It would have been 4 if I hadn’t been afraid of the 2 very popular girls that Michelle T invited to it. I pretended that I was sick which I felt pretty bad about. I should have just gone. They had been at my party and also 2 or 3 of the others.

   I guess that the taunting from my classmates was even worse at that time. She stopped being my friend shortly after this. I’m sure that it was another case of me not being cool enough for her like with my best friend Kelly.

   Maybe another factor was that she was upset that I had forgotten to put her name on the list of friends in the School Days book that Aunt Ann gave me. I felt awful about this and even apologized. I still have that; my report cards are in it.

   My friend Jane’s birthday was around Halloween time. She had a combo party but the only thing that I remember about this was hiding behind the couch just to see if anyone would notice that I was missing. Did they or was I just getting bored and eventually rejoined the party? I was a strange kid.

  Ellen’s b-day/ slumber party also included a trip to the roller rink but I didn’t do much skating because I was too scared. I had broken my arm doing so at my Aunt Ann’s house only about a year before this.

    Part of one of my birthday parties was at a bowling alley. I was not that good at this but did have fun.  I enjoyed watching the Professional Bowling (ABC Sports, I think) on TV with my family. Sometimes they’d use the song “Freeze Frame “before the commercial breaks. I’m almost certain that we watched a show called “Bowling for Dollars “too.

   My brother and I liked that and many other game shows. Our favorites were “Match Game”, “Hollywood Squares”, “The Joker’s Wild “, “Tic-Tac-Dough”, “Card Sharks”, “Wheel of Fortune”, “Name That Tune”, various versions of “Password” and “The Pyramid”, “Family Feud”, “Press Your Luck”, and “The Price is Right”; it is so cool that our grandma next door was in the audience for that in the late 70s.

 

 

 

Note-The 2 game show photos and Clark Lanes one are from the internet- I had posted more of the former but they weren't showing anymore- I never did claim them as my own so I am not sure why this happened.

 

 

70's and 80's TV

My memories of most things from the 70s and 80s are much more clear than those from the past 2 decades- the 90s are particularly hazy. It's kind of strange that I remember the TV schedule of the shows that I watched in the 80s.

- Monday- Scarecrow and Mrs. King, Newhart, Designing Women.
- Tuesday- The A Team, Riptide, Remington Steele.
- Wednesday- The Fall Guy, Dynasty
- Thursday- Magnum P. I., Simon and Simon, Knots Landing.
- Friday- The Dukes of Hazzard, Knight Rider.
- Saturday- The Love Boat, Fantasy Island.

I know that a few of those shows were also on in the late 70s- The Dukes and the 2 Saturday ones. My brother liked The Incredible Hulk which was also on Fridays but I can't remember if it was before or after The Dukes on CBS. I watched it with him. He liked some of my shows such as Magnum. I only watched Dynasty and Knots Landing for a few years.

There were also some shows that nowadays I think to myself "Why did we ever watch that?" Not to put anyone who likes them down, I'm just saying that I don't really get why I was into them. I'm sure that some people would say this about some of my shows. These include Growing Pains, Who's The Boss, Mr Belvedere and Family Ties.

I'm pretty sure that Matt Houston was on Fridays as well. It seems like I watched alot of TV back then. I did still get good grades in school despite this. I was an avid reader also. I didn't really belong to any clubs or have much of a social life though.

Favourite 70s shows- Emergency!, Sanford and Son, All in the Family, M*A*S*H, The Rockford Files, Quincy, Columbo and The Jeffersons. I know that some of these also went into the 80s. There's others but I can't think straight now- kind of tired. I no longer like M*A*S*H though. My brother has been watching the DVDs lately and I go to my room to get away from it. My 8th grade dance theme was that show.

We loved watching game shows also. The Price Is Right, Hollywood Squares, Password, Password Plus, Super Password, all versions of The Pyramid, Sale of the Century, The Joker's Wild, Tic Tac Dough, Name That Tune, Card Sharks, High Rollers, Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, Scrabble, Press Your Luck and To Tell The Truth.

Our cable company used to give us The Game Show Network in our package but now you have to pay extra for this. It was funny watching the old The Price Is Right episodes sometimes. My Grandma took a trip to California in 1978 to visit her nephew and was in the audience of that show which I thought was so cool. We didn't see her on it though.

I'm not overly nostalgic about the shows that we used to watch. I'm liking the shows that I watch now. I'm not stuck in a time warp like my Dad seems to be. He likes mostly the stuff from the 50s and 60s. I think that he does watch The Simpsons sometimes which seems kind of odd. He likes the old Superman. I like Smallville. My brother and I crack up because he likes Lawrence Welk- no offense to fans of that show.