Good night and may God bless

I was thinking about my childhood and remembering some of the TV shows I grew up watching. Weeknights I could choose what to watch, but Saturday nights belonged to my mother. We watched Ernest Tubb, Whispering Bill Anderson, Buck Ownes, Lawrence Welk, and others. I was enthralled with the Lennon Sisters; Janet, the youngest, was my favorite. I even had Lennon Sister paper dolls which I painstakingly cut out and kept in suburb condition. On weeknights I watched shows such The Mod Squad, Daktari, Mission Impossible, Carol Burnett (with Harvey Korman, Tim Conway, and Vicki Lawrence), The Wonderful World of Disney, and remember seeing the Beatles on Ed Sullivan for the first time.

For some reason I loved Red Skelton. Mostly I remember him as "Clem Kadiddlehopper," but he also did "Gertrude and Heathcliff, the Two Seagulls" and "George Appleby." He was a true clown and his gentleness always showed through, as least to my child eyes. He would end his show each week by saying, "Good night, and may God bless."

As I grew older I watched my teen idols, Bobby Sherman in "Here Come the Brides," David Cassidy in "The Partridge Family" and swooned over The Everly Brothers and later Davy Jones of the Monkees. I watched Tom Jones sing "Deliah" and "It's Not Unusual" (or at least I think that's the names).

There wasn't much going on in the small town I grew up in, but thanks to our black and white television I was transported to another place most nights. And now I think I need to transport myself off to bed. I'll leave you with Red's gentle words, "Good night, and may God bless."