The Good Old Daze

The Good Old Daze
When you get to be my age, you start reminiscing. So many things race through your mind; most of the time your thoughts go back to remembering bygone days. Just the other day I was thinking about what we did before we had television. Of course in those simpler times we listened to the radio. Going back to my youth I recall my father's favorite radio program was One Man's Family. When it came on, we had to decide what we were going to do, get it done, and then sit silently and listen. Two of his other favorites were Fibber McGee and Molly, a funny married couple, and Amos and Andy, a comedy team of two white men portraying two African American men. They were extremely funny and loved by the radio audience. My mom liked to listen, in the day- time, to Stella Dallas and Ma Perkins. Those programs aimed at women were sponsored by companies like Proctor & Gamble, and hence became known as “soap operas.” Listening to radio was better than today, as you could move around, do your housework and still listen to your soaps. Creepy and scary were programs like the Inner Sanctum and The Shadow. They even started off with eerie openings. The Inner Sanctum had a loud chord played on an organ followed by the sound of a doorknob turn and a creaking door opening. Oooooh! The Shadow opened with a man’s low scary voice saying, "Who knows what evil lurks in the heart of men? The Shadow knows!" Death Valley Days was another program that gathered the family together. For the Western lovers there were Hopalong Cassidy, and Gunsmoke. For more humor we had George Burns and Gracie Allen, Baby Snooks with Fanny Brice, and The Goldbergs. For mystery there were The Whistler, Sherlock Holmes, The Green Hornet, The Saint and the Adventures of Phillip Marlowe. There were so many more, but I had to really reach to remember these. Radio was great though and was not nearly as profane or as blatant as television is today. It left so much more to one’s imagination, and as the stories unfolded, they created visual images in our mind, unlike today’s television which rarely leaves anything to the imagination! It also brought the family together. Not only did families gather around the dinner table, but also the radio. Those were the good times and the good old days that people talk about. I guess my mother had her good old days to talk about also, and my grandchildren will have their good old days too. And on and on it goes.