A Monday memory.....

As I was perusing some entertainment articles last night on the computer, I noticed that the cast of Full House was celebrating their twenty-fifth reunion.  

Good Lord - has it really been twenty five years since the Englishman and I would sit on the couch, surrounded by our own three daughters, watching the antics of the three Tanner girls?

Now that's enough to make me feel old!

Television has been a huge part of my life since I was young.  Whenever I was home sick from school, my mother would wheel in the television which sat on a stand from the kitchen and place it at the foot of my bed.  I'd watch such classics as The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Andy Griffith Show, Leave It To Beaver, and I Love Lucy.

As a family, we would have dinner on TV trays on Saturday night, so we wouldn't miss a minute of The Jackie Gleason Show, a variety show which was broadcast live.  "And away we go..", Jackie Gleason would sing out as he'd do a quick two-step shuffle off the stage to begin the show.  Sunday nights were sacred, for Ed Sullivan was on at 8pm.  I can still remember when the Beatles appeared for the first of three appearances. (My mother once teased my father-in-law that it all started to go downhill from there, once the Beatles arrived on our shores....)

When I was in high school and college, Saturday nights were reserved for The Mary Tyler Moore Show.  You wouldn't dream of going out, no matter who your date or the destination, until you had seen Mary.  If you were staying in, you followed it up with The Bob Newhart Show, staying awake to finish the evening with Carol Burnett at ten.

As I said, while our girls were growing up, there were certain programs that we watched together as a family, including Little House on the Prairie, Growing Pains, and Family Matters. When British programs became more available, the Englishman was quite happy to introduce the girls to such classics as Fawlty Towers, Are You Being Served, and later, a real favorite, The Vicar of Dibley.

These days, we are establishing new traditions with the youngest generation, the Grands.  While the Englishman and I eat lunch with Little Miss on Sundays, we tune in to watch Caillou, a cartoon show for pre-schoolers.  The fact that it is narrated by "the Grandmother" is merely coincidental as to why I enjoy it so much.

Routines.  Traditions.

"It's a good thing" as Martha says.