My BIGWeeL

Watching TV shows with my sister and parents in the living room.  There was only one television in the house.   It was the first house I remember us living in.  1462 Gaty Ave.  East St. Louis Il.  We gathered to watch all the shows with black people on them like The Flip Wilson Show, Sanford & Son, and Good Times.  We didn’t sleep on Carol Burnett though!

  

  

Riding rough and jumping over sh*# on my huffy dirt bike!

That red living room in the house we lived at in South Bend, Indiana.  It had red carpet and red furniture like the couch and chairs.  This was the “nice” furniture with the plastic on it so we couldn’t sit on it.  We couldn’t even go in that living room except to clean it – or on Christmas morning since that is where the presents were.  If important company came over, the living room was all access then.

When my moms and aunts got together on a Saturday night – I would be running around with my cousins, and they would be listening to Al Green – talking, laughing, drinking, and saying “Awwww that is my SONG” while reminiscing about the funny things they did when they were much younger.  When I listen to certain music now – it take me right back there.

Catch a girl/kiss a girl! ~ Freeze Tag ~ Red Light/Green Light~ Simon Says ~ Hop Scotch ~ Jacks

Sneaking into the Redd Foxx, Richard Pryor, and Dolemite albums when my parents weren’t home.

            

The TV set we had to use pliers to turn the channel with.

The original Starsky & Hutch and Baretta, Fantasy Island and The Love Boat – SOAP!

  

    

Saturday morning cartoons with a big ole tupperware bowl of cereal like Count Chocula or Coco Puffs!  Don’t sleep on that Cap’n Crunch with them damn Crunchberries!

  

Going to baseball games with my father… to see the Cardinals back in the day when they had Lou Brock, Reggie Smith, Bake McBride, Kenny Reitz, Keith Hernandez, Ted Simmons, Garry Templeton, etc.   He loved the Dodgers the most so we always went to see them.  I think a lot of black men loved the Dodgers from when they were in Brooklyn and had players like Jackie Robinson and Roy Campanella.  Anyway, we sat in the bleachers $2.50 per seat sold 90 min before each game) and sat next to all the old men who would talk much noise.  This is where I got my affinity for older people. We ate peanuts and listened to KMOX as Jack Buck and Bob Costas did the radio play by play.  Those were some awesome times!

    

    

 I fogot all about them other cartoons.. Loony Toons, Fat Albert, Land of The Lost, Tom N’ Jerry, Snagglepuss, (“I hate thosem mieces to pieces… Exit – Stage left!”) Pixie and Dixie… need I go on??   I’m not going to even talk about Underdog, Commander McBragg, and them Go Go Gophers.  But my favorite/most endearing cartoon is “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”   Me and Chuck understand one another!  And I still cry when they fix Charlie’s sick ass tree up and make the best of it.  Yea I watched a lot of television.  But I also learned a lot of valuable lessons from some of those shows too.