A World of Stories

I was very fortunate that by the time I was five years old, our family bought a TV. It was an RCA. We were not the first TV in the neighborhood. A boy named Andy, who lived on Allegheny Avenue, got a TV a year or so before us. We use to go to his house and watch the first Howdy Doody shows.

Once we had a TV, I became an addict. I loved the shows such as The Goldbergs, The Lone Ranger, Arthur Godfrey, Hopalong Cassidy, Kraft Theater, Milton Berle, Ed Sullivan, and so many more. The local shows were great as well. There were so many I can’t list them all. But my very, very most favorite were all the movies from the 30s and 40’s they played.

We were so lucky to see the same movies out parents saw as youngsters when they first came out. I think it helped us bond with them. Our music was different, we wore different clothes but we watched the same movies.  Some come to mind like King Kong, The Adventures of Robin Hood and every other Erol Flynn movie. And what about Casablanca, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, It’s a Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34^th Street, Stagecoach, and so, so many more.

My Dad was a movie freak as well, so we got to see all the new movies from the late 40s to the late 50s and of course, we also had the Wishart Theater right down the street. I believe that this early introduction to movie stories is what instilled in me a wonderment for creating stories.

I wasn’t a big reader, and in fact, it wasn’t until I was 20 years old and in Vietnam that I started really reading books. You see there was no TV and if you wanted to be entertained by stories, you did it by reading. I will always be grateful for that because it made me an avid reader. My favorite books have always been fiction, but I have read my share of non-fiction as well.

It isn’t wonderful that now we can get our fill amazing stories from so many sources, from books to Netflix. I can rewatch the same movies I did when I was a kid peering through the plate glass window of the appliance store on Front Street, to the most current blockbusters.

I believe it was early television that had the most influence on me to write my own stories, and believe me, I am appreciative.

How do you believe those early TV shows and movies influenced you? Go ahead, tell us your story.

Originally posted on The Kensington Neighborhood Alumni Group on Facebook.

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