Top Ten TV Shows From the 1960s

Well, back to the list; this is the blog I intended to write yesterday before I realized the cosmic influence TV has had on my life and wandered down that hole.  What surprised me the most about this list was how hard it was to get it down to 10.  Yeah, I know, I watched too much television as a kid. 

#1 – Star Trek – for a young kid in the 1960s caught up in the space race to the moon between the US and USSR this was pure heaven to watch.  I know that watching it now, it seems very camp and quaint but at the time it came out it was cutting edge stuff, to include the special effects which are laughable by today’s standards.  I loved the optimism and the emphasis on doing the right thing, the show really did strive for social relevance.  Gene Roddenberry, long after the series was canceled, came to my college and I snuck in (no money in college) to watch his presentation.  For me he was a much bigger deal than any rock band – okay I was a nerd.  I was mesmerized and hearing him talk about Star Trek only reinforced my love of the show.  The original pull of the show has been diluted by the movies and innumerable other TV shows that are based in the Star Trek universe. This will always be #1 in my universe.

Uncle Walt

 #2 – Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color – This was a Sunday night tradition from the earliest recesses of my memories.  I can clearly remember anxiously waiting for Lassie to finish while sitting with my three sisters on the floor waiting for Disney to start.  The NBC peacock proclaiming the show was brought to us (on our black and white TV) in living color.  I can remember the awe I felt when we finally got a color TV and watching the intro to the show in color for the first time.  For me, Walt Disney was just the coolest guy the world has ever seen, a true dreamer who had the ability and drive to make those dreams reality and he did it for millions of us kids growing up in the 1960s.  Disney was like that cool uncle that came to visit each Sunday and told us to follow our dreams.  When I went down to Florida for spring break in college I went to Disney world, which we watched being built over the years on the show, for the first time, in homage to all the comfort the show had brought me.

#3 – Combat – I was born ten years after the end of World War 2 and every single adult that I knew had served in the military, including my father’s entire family, all of whom I idolized.  I loved this series surrounding the exploits of an infantry squad fighting its way across France after D-Day.  Vic Morrow and Rick Jason as Sergeant Saunders and Lieutenant Hanley were super heroes to me.  You always knew who was going to get killed because if they weren’t part of the regular crew (Kirby, Caje, Little John or Doc), they were doomed. The most common game we kids played in the 1960s was “War” in which we formed up two armies (squad sized) and then stalked each other across the neighborhood, sometimes spending entire summer days doing it.  We always looked to SGT Saunders for the right way to do things.  After a career spent in the infantry, I caught a couple of re-runs recently and realized they got it right.  God I loved that show – the opening theme can still get my blood up.

#4 – Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone – This was one of the shows that preached to you about doing the right thing but did it so subtlety that you didn’t realize it at the time.  Serling had an immense ability delve into the human psyche and present object tales “for your consideration”.  I learned later that he had to fight censors for his entire career as he fought to send socially relevant messages through his work.  At the time I didn’t realize it – all I knew was that when I was finally old enough to stay up and watch the Twilight Zone, it was a Godsend.  Serling introduced each show and his voice had such gravitas and texture.  You can watch these shows now and still be caught up in the drama and slightly off kilter world of Rod Serling.  This was one of those shows that was always better in black and white.

#5 – Bewitched – This may be a surprising choice but I was seriously infatuated with Elizabeth Montgomery who starred as Samantha, the witch who marries a normal human.  I can honestly state that she was my first true crush – I always thought it would be so cool to have a witch as a girlfriend – which may explain my early dating patterns (but I digress).  I always thought Dick York as Darren was not worthy of her but the rest of the cast was awesome, including Paul Lynde, one of the funniest guys the current generation has never heard of.  I was abjectly horrified when they made a movie based on the TV series and cast Nicole Kidman (whom I loathe on a very base level) as my beloved Samantha.  This show was funny and sweet and I always planned on having a house like the one the Stevens lived in.

#6 – Rowan and Martin’s Laugh In – Possibly the funniest show ever conceived.  Rowan and Martin acted as emcees of a truly manic cast that captured the turbulent political times of the 1960s and turned them on their head. So many catch phrases of that time can be traced back to this show, “Sock it to me, Verrrry Interesting, Here Comes the Judge, Beautiful Downtown Burbank, and You Bet Your Sweet Bippy” just to mention a few.  The show combined a cutting edge humor with a social conscience and hid it all behind a façade of insanity.  This show really set the stage for Saturday Night Live.  They even had Dick Nixon on and he credited his appearance with helping him get elected.  The cast included Ruth Buzzi, Judy Carne, Henry Gibson, Larry Hovis, Arte Johnson, Jo Anne Worley, Gary Owens (announcer), Eileen Brennan, Flip Wilson, and Goldie Hawn.  As mentioned earlier I had a serious crush on Judy Carne and she along with Goldie Hawn in bikinis was a true highlight of the show.  I loved Dick Martin playing the clown to Rowan’s seriousness – perfect comedic timing.

#7 – Lost in Space – Another campy sci fi show that captured the imagination of a young boy.  The space faring family Robinson along with the comically evil Dr Smith, stalwart Major West, and the “Danger Will Robinson” robot.  I think every single boy my age wanted to be Will Robinson and share in the adventures of the Jupiter 2.  I can remember being really concerned that the Robinsons might never make it back to earth.  The show was very exciting for a very young kid and really “jumped the shark” in its later seasons when the focus shifted too much to Dr Smith’s silly adventures but I still cherish the memories of those early seasons.  This was another one of those shows that challenged the imagination at the time but now just looks silly, you kind of had to be there.

#8 – Get Smart – I challenge anyone who watched this show not to admit they tried to count the doors Maxwell Smart entered at the start of each show.  Don Adams played the lovable idiot secret agent Agent 86 from Control with such aplomb that you had to love him.  Both Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, two of funniest men to have ever lived, were involved in writing for this series and it showed.  There were so many funny double entendres and just totally goofy sequences, although if you truly listen the show was smarter than it seemed.  I loved the shoe phone, the cone of silence, and Hymie the human robot.  This show was a great send up of the secret agent theme so popular with the James Bond movies and Man from U.N.C.L.E. TV series, not to mention the very real Cold War that was at its height at the time.

#9 – Johnny Quest – An animated series, I had to have one on this list, that ran in prime time and was really high quality animation as well as adventure.  Every young boy idolized Johnny in his adventures with his friend Hadji, his dog Bandit, his father Dr Benton Quest and of, course, the hero, Race Bannon.  I liked the show because it played it straight – it didn’t try to appeal to comedy.  It was like seeing a comic book brought to life and I loved it.

#10 – The Time Tunnel – Another science fiction themed show, something of a trend here, but one that totally captured my imagination in the late 1960s.  I am a bona fide history nut so this combined a couple of my passions.  Two scientists, Tony and Doug, accidently are stranded in the Time Tunnel where they experience some of the great episodes of history.  The series was well written and I loved the epic battle scenes, all stolen from movies, which I tried to guess at.  James Darren, a crooner from the 50s played the lead and was actually pretty good as an action star.  This series also lost track of what made it good after a short time, but during its run it was interesting and a lot of fun.

Well that’s the list, for at least for one child of the 1960s and I’m proud of what these shows did for me.  Some of the last cuts from the list were:  12 O’Clock High, The Addams Family, The Wild, Wild West, I dream of Jeannie, The Man from UNCLE, and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.

1960s TV Shows – Effect

I’ve always thought that I watch way too much television, an opinion shared by both my late mother and my wife.  I’m a member of the first generation to grow up with TV as part of their daily routine.  I can remember being absolutely thrilled and amazed when my parents brought home our first color TV and how happy we were with the three channels that we had.  Saturday mornings were devoted to cartoons and Sunday nights were Lassie, Disney, and as it got later – The Ed Sullivan Show for my parents.  We even had a “TV Room” which was solely for watching the boob tube.  This room became an escape capsule for my three sisters and I, but more for me than them, I think.  We all huddled in there as we listened to my parents fight in the nearby living room as their marriage dissolved.  I originally intended to write today’s blog about my favorite TV shows from the 1960s, covering my youth from the age of 5 to 15.  As I put together the list I was struck by both the quality and social relevance that a lot of these shows achieved.  The 1960s were a time of immense social turmoil as we moved into the earliest instances of the information age parented by a generation that had passed through the twin cataclysms of the Great Depression and World War 2.  Many of these shows snuck in socially relevant ideas and concepts.  I always wondered why I was so against racism in any form and I think some of that came from the TV shows that held my rapt and wondering attention in the 1960s.  I yearned to live up to the ideals of my TV heroes.  It’s probably why I ended up in the Army as I strived to live up to Sgt Saunders and Lt Hanley from Combat.  It’s probably why I fell so hard for the English girl that broke up my first engagement, remembering my crush on Judy Carne from Laugh In.  In a way the TV became a surrogate parent as my own parents were so embittered by their own personal struggle against each other to really be the parents that we needed.  As I looked back on some of my favorite shows – the boob tube didn’t do a half bad job with me.  I could have had a lot worse role models to emulate.  I’ll blog that list of top 1960s TV shows later.  This is what I’ve come to enjoy about this blog – I get to wander down these rabbit holes of memories and try to make sense of what we’ve all become.  It may also explain my antipathy towards what TV has become – too much of a good thing.  A force for good that has in many ways lost its way.

The World is Upside Down

I’ve written before about the techno-phobia of my wife.  She has always resisted embracing new technology, be it e-mail or the internet in which she has always depended on me to help her out with, usually when I’m trying to watch a football game.  I changed tactics last year and showed her how to shop on the internet.  While this was moderately to severely irresponsible of me financially speaking – she took to it like a duck to water.  The next step was buying her an I-phone for Christmas.  She was initially daunted but has since embraced it wholeheartedly, following some individual training sessions with both of our kids.  She keeps asking me how certain things work and I repeat the mantra of the kids – keep playing with it and you’ll figure it out.  Again, this was playing to her strengths, first with shopping and subsequently with telephones.  My wife is a true adept a talking on a telephone – something I have always been amazed and sometimes irritated at.  Anyways, yesterday the world got turned upside down because my company changed my blackberry out and issued me an I-phone.  My brother in law is convinced that the I-phone with its ability to connect people to each other and information will go down in history as the greatest invention of our time.   As soon as I walked in the door my wife commandeered the phone and started giving me lessons on its use.  This somehow flipped some kind of switch with her.  She was texting pictures with my daughter and then set up a facetime conversation with one of her friends in Virginia.  All of this was happening without any instruction from me.  When I got back from my evening swim I noted the lights were blazing in our family room.  I found her on the computer engaged in a laugh filled Skype video conference with another friend in Virginia which apparently had been going on for over an hour.  We had done video conversations before but always with people I had set up as contacts, not including this friend.  Somehow she had done this all by herself, I was totally impressed.  She asked me to close it down when she was done and as I was doing so I found a number of screens still open that represented some of her failed efforts to make it happen but I was still so proud of her.  Technology does not come easy to people of our age but she seems to have finally turned the corner.  Shopping and telephones – always play to the strengths!

Movie Hunger

Last night I took my bride out for our weekly date night.  We went to see the movie Hunger Games.  I was really looking forward to this movie after my daughter gave me the books and I read them in very short order.  The books were good and the movie had some really good reviews so I was set up to be disappointed.  I was not.  The movie was loyal to the books and the small diversions were not deal breakers.  I was wondering how they could effectively translate some of the more ambitious scenes from the book but they nailed all of these.  The movie audience was really crowded and about 80 per cent female but this was still a good action movie.  I was surprised by the number of very small children in attendance for what was, at times, a very intense movie.  We had one 2-3 year old sitting right behind us.  She was good for the most part although she did ask a bunch of really loud questions and had a truly impressive episode of high decibel flatulence.  I had no right to be perturbed because I can remember bringing my own children to the movies at a similar age.  I remember my daughter requisitioning my chest as a recliner as if this was required for her movie watching experience.  When she got older and stopped doing this I really missed it.  I always covered the kids’ eyes for the inappropriate scenes and they seemed to like this game.  I always gave them credit for being able to handle the movie content but I’m not sure I was a good parent in doing this.  They both turned out to be very well adjusted adults in spite of this.  It was probably very self-centered of me because I absolutely love movies and one of the first sacrifices you make with a new born is movie nights.  It would have been manifestly unfair to leave the wife at home with babies while I went to the movies so I didn’t.  So, when they reached an age where they could attend I started bringing them.  They both turned out to be movie nuts themselves, although with a decidedly different taste.  My daughter is a real student of the medium, something I am also, but not to the degree she has achieved.  My son is a devotee of science fiction and action movies, something he also picked up from me.  When we go to the movies together and watch the previews – all we have to do is look at each other to know that the previewed movie is going to be a must see for both of us.   I know it bugs my wife when the kids and I launch into one of our movie discussions but it really has turned out to be common ground that we like to explore together.  Its great being able to share ground with them despite the yawning gulf of our years.

Latest Circus in Town – Trayvon Martin Case

The Circus With Its Ringmaster

If you’ve watched any broadcast news lately – you can’t avoid the story of Trayvon Martin.  It’s a truly tragic story where a young man is senselessly killed before he really discover who he is and who he would become.  Over the last week it’s become a true circus which began with Martin’s parents justifiably wondering why the guy who pulled the trigger isn’t behind bars.  The sickest thing is seeing the media whores who sensed this story might have some traction and now are providing breathless coverage of everything.  Anytime Al Sharpton arrives on the scene you know all form of rational discussion has ended.  I truly believe Sharpton could care less about the facts of the case – this is just his latest chance to grab some publicity.  The media initially reported only some of the known facts and showed pictures of Martin as 13 year old and parts of the 911 calls where the killer is told to stop following Martin.  Only now that the story is completely blown up do we learn he was 6’2” and a lot more imposing than the pictures have shown. There are some eye witnesses, including some African-Americans, who say Martin was the aggressor.  We’ll never know what really happened and I think the Sharptons of the world don’t really want to know.  The authorities, feeling pressure, are now releasing some additional information that should only cloud the issue further.  The young man’s somewhat spotty school disciplinary record has been released – which has nothing whatsoever to do with what happened that night.  We had an armed moron (never a good combination), law enforcement wannabe, who was wandering around as a neighborhood watch guy who ran into an African-American teenager who probably thought he was living up to the image of the young tough that is so glorified in the culture of our youth.  Again, we’ll never know what really happened, except that a young man is dead who shouldn’t be and now we’re all being victimized by an entertainment media masquerading as news organizations.

The Real Tragedy - Lost Potential

Beer Laced Counseling

Favorite Cousin and His Family

We spent Saturday evening at the house of my favorite cousin.  His daughter is signing up for the Army and they wanted my “insider” view on some of the things they were hearing from the recruiter.  I sometimes forget how alien the military is to most Americans.  I think her mother, my cousin’s wife, had more concerns than the daughter.  I think she is using me as a weapon against the recruiter though.  She has been telling him that she was going to run everything by their cousin (me), a retired infantry colonel, before she would allow her daughter to sign up.  From everything they were telling me the recruiter was being very honest and straightforward.  Once dinner was over and the kids were able to escape the grilling by the adults we settled in around the table with my cousin, his wife, and a couple of their friends.  I truly enjoyed the evening, it’s the kind of evening I envisioned a lot of when I anticipated retirement in New England but have been very few and far between.  My cousin (we were like brothers in our youth) lives less than thirty miles away but we seldom see each other.  He’s been facing some serious health concerns over the last few years, including a heart attack and more recently a very severe lung disease.  Based on his ability to consume beer on Saturday I am assuming he is fully on the mend.  I pride myself on my ability to drink beer but he was truly pushing me to the limit on Saturday night.  Luckily my wife figured out early in the evening that she was going to be driving home.  Thank God for the ability of alka seltzer before bed time to mitigate the effects of a hangover.  Sunday was a little foggy both outside and in.  My wife’s ability to control the weather has apparently waned as it will be in the teens tonight.  We watched several movies over the weekend including the entire Bourne trilogy which my son gave to me in blu ray format for Christmas.  It was interesting to watch all three movies in a row – still a great series of movies. We later watched Contagion, which also has Matt Damon.  It was funny seeing him play a pudgy middle class dad after the buff Jason Bourne.  The kid can act.

King Redemption

Yes, Master

Okay, I am totally freaked out right now.  Yesterday I had the temerity to actually question Lord Stephen King when it came to his novel Under the Dome.  I questioned whether he still had the ability to keep my attention and my allegiance.  Shortly after I wrote that I followed my normal lunch routine and opened up the book to continue what I had considered up to that point, wading.  The book actually took off for me as the good guys finally started to fight back and I found myself in my normal "King Zone" - totally engrossed in the book.  It happened so quickly that I sat back after ten minutes reading and said out loud - WOW!.  However the spookiest thing was yet to come.  You'll remember that in yesterday's blog I mentioned one of my favorite characters in reading - Jack Reacher, from Lee Child's series of novels.  As I was quickly turning pages all of a sudden one of the characters in King's novel was described as follows, "she was a great soldier and had the personal recommendation of Jack Reacher, the toughest soldier I ever knew."  I was actually stunned.  I thought for a moment that King had some sort of mystical ability to react to my negative comments and change the book I was reading while I was reading it.  Ridiculous, of course, but there is still a part back in the animal part of my brain that wonders.  The bottom line is that I am back in love with King again and thoroughly enjoying this current book.  I apologize profusely for doubting the master.  I am not worthy.

King Sized Dilemma

I unabashedly love the books of Stephen King.  I usually wait a few years between readings and then devour everything he’s written in those years.  Luckily he’s extremely prolific and there’s usually a bunch of his work waiting for me after these interludes.  The Kindle has made it so easy that I don’t even have to wander around the book store wondering whether I’ve gotten all his latest works.  Just before heading to Panama I downloaded several of his works and anticipated passing time in the airline terminals enjoying this latest King fix.  It started out great as I knocked off several of his novellas and then ran into a wall almost as real as the Maine barrier featured in the current book, Under the Dome.  One of the things I’ve liked about King’s books are his protagonists, usually an everyman/woman, who struggles against evil and succeeds, although sometimes at great cost.  That seems to be missing in this book (so far) which follows the descent of the residents of a small Maine town that is suddenly cut off from the world by an invisible dome.  I was initially excited because the seeming hero, a guy named Barbara (last name), was similar to one of my absolutely favorite literary figures, Jack Reacher, from Lee Child’s awesome series of books.  Barbara, with the truly unfortunate nickname of Barbie, is a wandering veteran who becomes trapped in and then embroiled in the dissolution of the town pitted against a truly evil selectman.  For the first time I’ve actually considered putting down a King book and not finishing it.  The writing is still top notch but I find myself incredibly frustrated by the plot where good people are seemingly willing victims to the evil.  I know this has happened, Nazi Germany being the most glaring example, but here King is doing it with my fellow New Englanders and I don’t like it.  King’s done this before but he always lets the good guys have at least a fighting chance but I’m halfway through and there’s been precious little in the way of standing up to evil yet.  I’m a little worried that maybe it’s me that’s changed. I’ve written earlier that I find I don’t enjoy the drama of sports as much as I used to, maybe this goes hand in hand with that.  I never would have even considered putting down a King book before finishing it so I'm a little worried about myself.  I’m going to finish it because I find myself thinking about the characters all the time and trying to figure out how they're goning to get out.  I guess that means King’s done it to me again but it was more painful than it should have been.  Hopefully “Barbie” can rescue Chester’s Mill from itself, I’ll let you know.

Stop Laughing at me - You Got me Again!

Is My Wife Controlling the Weather?

Weather Mage?

Today we’ll have 80 degree sunshine in Central Massachusetts for the second day in a row.  I’m not complaining, just in wonder because, come on, it’s March 22d!  This follows up on a winter that we had only two minor snow storms.  I only used one small bag of salt for the driveway for the entire winter – last year that was a single afternoon’s worth.  This has led me to speculate that my wife has somehow learned to exert control over the weather.  She has an almost insidious ability to control events in my life and maybe she has decided to spread her wings even further.  As a native of Panama she is definitely not in favor of cold weather.  When we moved into a new house I would always tell neighbors not to worry if they didn’t see her outside for the several months – that only meant that the temperature was below 70 degrees.  I think I can trace her decision to exert control back to last year’s brutal winter.  We also had a hurricane, an earthquake, and a couple of tornadoes – almost felt like California.  She decided to spend February down in Panama and that’s when the weirdly warm weather started.  It’s just a theory at this point but I think I may be on to something.  I’ve often underestimated her power, to my sorrow in most cases, and I’m going to be careful.  Luckily she’s not as fickle as "normal" New England weather so maybe this will be an improvement.

Reflections on Panama



Dolega - Where We Bought Our Land Right Above David on Left Side of Map

Now that I’ve been back from Panama a few days I’ve had some time to think about the future and what it holds.  I now own an acre of Panama and over the next few years my wife and I will be building a house there.  The big question is whether it will be a second home, our primary residence, a vacation house, or a huge mistake. I’ve been to Panama dozens of times and I truly love my wife’s family, that’s the whole reason I agreed to purchase the land in the first place.  This visit, for the first time, I felt really at home there.  I usually confine my use of Spanish to family members but this time, without even realizing it I found myself conversing with strangers and actually holding my own.  I even watched some of the local television and understood everything that was being said.  The scariest part was that by the end of the week I was even thinking in Spanish.  That has always been my biggest concern about living in Panama – communicating in a second language.  Based on last week I don’t think that will be a problem and the Panamanian people for the most part are very outgoing and appreciative when you try to speak their language.  On the other hand I also realized I will never truly fit in down there.  I’m a head taller and significantly bigger than most of the Panamanians – I stand out – a lot.  Even though there are plenty of Americans already living down there – I found that I was the object of curiosity as my wife and I walked around her home town.  When I was first assigned to Panama in the early 1980s there was some actual animosity towards Americans, mainly due to the issue of the canal.  I found that has largely dissipated but at the same time I will never look or act like a native – I’ll always be the big gringo.  I think that feeling of being an outsider, more than anything else, will keep me from living down there full time.  It also has given me a huge amount of respect for my wife who has been living outside her native culture for more than a quarter century and thriving.  I think we’ll end up living down there for 4-5 months each year and still maintain a home, albeit much smaller than our current one, in New England.  I don’t think I could choose to be away from New England in the autumn – if I have a choice.  Thankfully I do.  Of course all this logic goes out the window if both of our kids and any future grandkids end up somewhere else. 

Me Standing on Our Land - Right About Where the Pool is Going to Be

Favorite Daughter Visiting

My Incredibly Gifted and Beautiful Daughter

My daughter has been visiting since last Saturday, along with her invisible cat, Pee Wee.  Pee Wee’s invisibility is in direct correlation to Buddy’s somewhat boisterous personality.  Whenever my daughter brings Pee Wee he ends up spending most of the time underneath her bed while Buddy roams the landscape.  Pee Wee does emerge once Buddy is safely ensconced for the night in his cage.  My daughter lives a pretty fast paced life in New York City with her musician husband and I love it when she can spend some time with us – if for no other reason than to slow down and decompress from her daily stress.  We’ve watched a few movies together and generally enjoyed just spending time together.  She also showed me how to use the scanner at home; she is my guru for all things technical.  We went to see John Carter on Sunday which was okay but last night we went to see 21 Jump Street which had all of us rolling in the aisles.  It was so funny – Channing Tatum is definitely more than just a pretty face – he has great comedic timing.  I’ve always thought that truly funny comedic acting is much tougher than dramatic acting so he’s been elevated in my opinion.  Unfortunately I’ve got to release my daughter back into the New York City maelstrom tonight.  We’ll be taking her down to New Haven, Connecticut to catch a train to the city. She and her mother are coming to the office shortly so I can take them out to lunch – so that’ll help but I miss her already.  I’ll just have to make sure the cat goes with her, Buddy will insist.

Pee Wee The Invisible Cat

Vivid Trip Down Memory Lane

My Dad - Movie Star

A few weeks ago I stumbled across a plastic bag filled with 8mm movies that I’d found in my mother’s attic when we were cleaning out her house following her death in 2002.  They were home movies shot in the mid to late 1950s and early 1960s.  I cruised the internet and found a place in Wisconsin that offered to convert the movies to DVD, Take5 Productions.  I corresponded with the owner via e-mail and she assured me the movies would be in good hands.  I vividly remember watching these movies when I was young, mostly because I was charged with manning the projector and that was incredibly frustrating because it was so balky.  The DVDs came back shortly before I left for Panama.  I decided to wait to watch the movies with my wife and sister.  When we picked up Buddy on Thursday night I invited my sister and her husband to come up on Saturday for the world premiere.  My daughter was already planning on being with us for the weekend and we invited my best friend also.  The movies were just flat fantastic and it was so much more fun watching the movies with the assembled family and friends.  I was most touched by seeing the few scenes with my father.  He was killed in 1977 by a drunk driver and had not been a big part of my life after his divorce from my mother in the late 1960s.  To see him again, jauntily walking across the screen, usually with a cigarette in his mouth brought back a lot of good memories.  I’m older now than he ever got to be and I often regret he didn’t get to meet my kids, whom he would have adored.  We also saw my mother, younger than my daughter is now, gracefully maneuvering three young children around, best clothes for Easter, and lots of hoop skirts for the girls.  I also noticed how much my own kids resembled me at the early ages of 1-3.  This was a great dose of nostalgia and brought forth so many thoughts of what might have been.  Everybody’s life is defined by the decisions they make.  I wish my parents had been able to make better decisions when I saw how happy they seemed to be in these movies.

My Sister (L) and Myself Marching Down the Street in 1958

My Dad Holding My Sister (R) and Myself (L)

Panama Photos - As Promised



Day 1 - Visiting Old Haunts -
Former Howard AFB - Broke My Ankle There

Kobbe Beach - Old Army Beach - Now a 4-Star Resort

Day 1 Old Haunts - Remains of Ancon Inn - Favorite Soldier Hang Out

End of Day 1 - Dinner with Wife and Family at Outdoor Cafe

My Wife and I on the Land We Bought - Day 3

My Wife's Family Posing on Our Land - Day 3

Another View of Land -
Mountains I Wrote About are in Gap in Trees - Day 3

View of Land from Street - Day 3

Wife and I at Anniversary Party - Day 4

Panamanian Tradition
My Wife's Father and Uncles Playing Dominoes - Day 4

Family Portrait with Wife's Family -
I'm the One Who's a Head Taller than Everybody Else - Day 4

In the Bus Headed to Gavilla Beach - Day 5

My Wife (R) and Her Sister at our Bohio - Gavilla Beach - Day 5

Beautiful Lady - My Wife - Gavilla Beach - Day 5



Gavilla Beach - Day 5





Smuggler's Road - Gavilla Beach - Day 5





Wife and I After Climbing Smuggler's Road for Pacific View - Day 5



Wife Buying Watermelons on PanAmerican Highway - Day 6



La Barranca Swimming Hole - Day 6



Dinner at La Barranca - Day 6



Construction of New Panama Canal on Right - Day 8



View From Our Hotel Room - Panama City - Day 8



More of Panama City Skyline Day 8



Buddy's Frantic Greeting For my Wife - Day 8.5