Again… stuff from the 60s…
How many of us had a color TV back then???
And how many of us had to help lick these damned things?
And managed to talk your parents into one of these for your bedroom?
Or got to stay up late enough to see this?
And last, but not least, the original Sam Walton store in Bentonville, AR.
p.s. if you remember all of these, you too are a dinosaur… 🙂
I got up early to watch the local PBS station sign on, with the National Anthem, Ode to Flight, and the university chimes. Then the farm report came on and I would get back to building the current model airplane.
Yes to National Anthem and Ode to Flight, but the 1st show was Jack Lalain calesthenics show, then national news. All in glorius Blck
White. First color TV was in 1970’s (wood cabinet B&W TV was stubborn and refused to break). S&H Green Stamps from gas stations and Texas Gold stamps from grocery store – yep, we used those too. Wal-Mart was not in our locale (deep south Texas) was the 1980’s (I think).
All of them — well, not the first Walton’s. I didn’t live in that area. And we didn’t own a color TV, but I knew a family which did… different era.
Check out the Google Maps Street View of 602 S. Edgewater Drive, Mesa Arizona where Lorne Greene built “The Ponderosa II House”. The love he had for the show and that time in his life is shown by him building that house in ’60.
Way up in northern Idaho, across a lake from the main road that runs up there, someone built an EXACT replica of the Ponderosa. Beautiful place. When I was working a contract job up there ages ago, one of the locals took me by it. Well north of Sandpoint, on the eastern side of 95.
Found it, it’s south of rte 95, just after it turns east, by the small lake west of Good Grief Idaho. Sadly the trees have all grown up so you really can’t see it from the road.
Then again I was there like 20 years ago?
Very Cool!
I remember all but the WalMart. I was like McChuck. I was up early for cartoons on Saturday. Those TV engineers kept up the Indian Head test pattern way too long on Saturday, IMO. And it was a black and white. We didn’t get a color tv until the late 70’s. Our b&w Zenith console worked like a champ. The color tv had a clicker. I found out dad’s old Colt would turn it on with the third click of the four. I was cleaning it after our Thanksgiving shoot-fest, and it changed the channel during a football game. Dad wasn’t happy about that “happy” coincidence.
I was up early enough to see the test pattern. One station still did that when the others were color bars.
I recall color TV… except when the flyback transformer went out on the Sylvania (with a true red!) and it was B&W… for the coverage of the color photos from the Viking landers. It was weird, to me, that one set of grandparent didn’t get color until the late 1970’s if not the 1980’s. I recall a young(er) aunt had a coloring book… and stuff on or from TV was B&W.
Yes I too am a dinosaur , and remember all of these things . I was thinking the other day how many valuable baseball cards I tossed or lost just to get that stick of gum in the pack . My Dad once gave me a signed Stan Musial baseball , my friends and I took it to the local ball field and played ball with it and ruined it . Boy was I stupid , stupid..stupid . If I only had a time machine…
Been there, parked in that exact spot.
I remember all but the Walton store. We did not have them in PA. We did have G.C. Murphy’s store though. I also remember in 1966 getting stranded for 3 days in Dallas after Basic in SanAntonio. Me and three other guys kept getting bumped from the flights going to Cleveland because of a piliots strike. I remember going downtown Dallas and walking up the stairs to a strip joint and a wealthy oilman paying our way in and buying us beer because we were all in uniform. Ended up cashing our plane tickets in and taking the train to Cleveland with a transfer in St. Louis. Our baggage got on the plane but not us.
Didn’t know until 1974 that Dorothy was in color after she squished the witch.
Hoss was my favorite.
Green stamps tasted ucky.
Was asked yesterday to search the storage locker for the lava lamp. No joy.
Fall asleep as the station signed off. Wake up to video snow. Good times.
Wal-whut?
Have 2 in storage. He left me lots of goodies that I have no idea what to do with.
We didn’t get a color TV until they said they were going to take a COLOR tv camera on Apollo to the moon. My parents thought for THAT they’d spend the money.
I remember not only staying up late enough, but getting up early enough. Remember how they’d play the national anthem when they’d sign off? On a side note remember the guy who made the sarcastic sign off with the nuclear explosion and all of that? (I used to know him btw).
Lava lamp? Not allowed. Too hot, might start a fire!
And yup! S&H greenstamps! licked a lot of those…
We had a B&W tv until 1976.
Due to issues with my ears (lots of pain due to allergies) I’d get up and watch the snow on the non-broadcasting channels. For some reason the ‘snow’ sound calmed my ears. My parents would find me asleep in front of the tv. (No, nobody spoke to me and my name isn’t Carolanne…)
Still had some green stamps when they went out of business. Never really encountered them growing up until I moved to a non-military area in 1985.
Best trivia question. How did the first episode of Bonanza start? (Hint, can you sing it?)
All- Thanks for the comments, and yes, the National Anthem and Ode to Flight! Trumpeter- The burning map!
No, the four of them rode into the screen singing the theme song. “We got a right to pick a little fight, Bonanza! Anyone who picks a fight with anyone of us, we got to fight them all!”
Incredibly bad singing. They canceled that as the intro and the only footage they had for intro roll was the first episode. So even though the first 16 or so episodes are lost, you can see #1 on the intro.
I think I was a dinosaur even then, at least by attitude.
1. Maybe in the late 60s? I know we had black and white for a long time. I do remember the first time we watched Bonanza in color.
2. Oh yeah. Redeeming them was a fun trip.
3. Lava lamps were neat, but I never had one.
4. Remember they played the National Anthem every night, right before that came on?
5. I don’t remember that.
In Michigan we did have a Ben Franklin. Some of those were franchised by Sam Walton…
We had a black and white TV until my older brother got divorced and got custody of the color TV. He moved in for a few months, and as far as I know, Mom bought the TV. Just in time for the Munich Olympics. Terrorism in living color. Erk!
Got my color TV from a co-worker who thought he was a better poker player than his gambling buddies. He wasn’t.
We’d visit my Dad’s retired boss (and a good friend) on some evenings when a really good movie was coming up. That’s how I knew about the Wizard of Oz in B&W/Color. I’d catch the test patterns in summer time when the stations shut down. Never saw Bonanza in color, though the midnight movie crowd would sing the Bonanza them song when Michael Landon turned into a teenaged werewolf.
I got a couple of suitcases when I went to college. S&H greenstamps paid for them. Still have one. Never owned a Lava Lamp, and don’t want one now.
The first TV show I saw in color was Bonanza, and my Mom was an avid collector of S&H. I licked plenty of them until I started using a little sponge.
Never had a Lava Lamp until decades later, and I saw the test pattern many, many times on Friday nights after the SciFi programs were over.
I used a printout of the Indian as a test target while working on video/laser equipment.
My parents didn’t get a color TV until I was in the Navy. Wal-Mart was unheard of in our small mid-Missouri town until they bought out the Mohr Value stores. Early ’70s, if my intermittent memory is functional today.
Seems that two of the Cartwrights tie their holsters down, and two don’t. How come? I don’t recall if that was consistent.
Like RCP we got a color TV for the ’72 Olympics. Watched Jim McKay age 10 years over night.
The Green Stamp store was in Annandale, VA. Mom used the stamps for cooking skillets and other household items.
STILL have my Bonanza lunchbox and thermos. Price goes up and down as the market fluctuates.
The test pattern boards used by TV stations are collectible too. Friend Joe still kicks himself for not taking the old ones from the station he worked at.
All- Thanks for the comments!