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Lessons on Being a Grown-Up from… Vincent Price?
PJ Media ^
| February 5, 2013
| Kathy Shaidle
Posted on 02/13/2013 9:17:27 AM PST by Squawk 8888
The Seventies was a lousy time to be a kid.
Oh, sure, it wasnt all bad:
We didnt wear bike helmets. Our parents made us play outside (Get out of this house, and dont come back til the street lights come on!). We bounced around in the back of the station wagon. No one was allergic to peanut butter, or very much else.
Evel Knievel was a role model.
But something freakish, sinister, and incomprehensible was always being talked about, over at the Me Decades grown ups table:
Watergate (which had something to do with bugs invading America, I concluded; men in suits talked about it on TV so much, they interrupted my lunchtime Flintstones for months), the Patty Hearst kidnapping, Vietnam, Jimmy Carter, Bicentennial toilet seats, The Gong Show, hijackings, the Loud family, D.B. Cooper, divorce, things called muggings, crying Indians, gas station lineups and an unprecedented combination of high inflation, unemployment, and interest rates that adults muttered about in worried voices just out of earshot.
Epitomized by Howard Hughes will, fakery was epidemic:
We decorated our houses with plastic flowers and fruit. Squeaking drugstore paperback racks were laden with books about astrology, crypto-zoology, alien astronauts, and other junk history. Everyone knew that some all-powerful They had gotten away with killing the Kennedys and King. What chance did a timid, puny seven-year-old girl have?
If a rich child porn aficionado could bury a bunch of kids in their school bus, what the hell couldnt happen?
A kid needed a break.
If you lived in my part of the world, starting around 1971, that respite came in the form of a cheap local TV show called The Hilarious House of Frightenstein.
(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...
TOPICS: Society; TV/Movies
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That show was an afternoon staple when I was a kid.
To: Clive; exg; Alberta's Child; albertabound; AntiKev; backhoe; Byron_the_Aussie; Cannoneer No. 4; ...
To all- please ping me to Canadian topics.
Canada Ping!
2
posted on
02/13/2013 9:19:36 AM PST
by
Squawk 8888
(True North- Strong Leader, Strong Dollar, Strong and Free!)
To: Squawk 8888
absolutely loved, Chuck Barra's The GONG! Show
3
posted on
02/13/2013 9:21:20 AM PST
by
skinkinthegrass
(who'll take tomorrow,spend it all today;who can take your income,tax it all away..0'Blowfly can :-)
To: Squawk 8888
We didnt wear bike helmets. Our parents made us play outside (Get out of this house, and dont come back til the street lights come on!). We bounced around in the back of the station wagon. No one was allergic to peanut butter, or very much else. Evel Knievel was a role model.
Wow, that is a bang-on description of my childhood in the 70's. Thanks for sharing! (actually my mom HATED Evel Knievel. She suffered endless nightmares about sons with broken bikes and broken bones thanks to him. I think she honestly would have ridden a Greyhound all the way to Montana for a chance to smack him in the puss)
To: Squawk 8888
The part with the DJ was the best! Cannot hear that Sly & the Family Stone song (Boom Shaka Laka Laka!) without thinking about that show. It was so out there!
5
posted on
02/13/2013 9:29:29 AM PST
by
getarope
(Time for the repubs to grow some balls and STOP the Kenyan in his tracks NOW!)
To: Squawk 8888
If this was on in my area, I did not see it. I was too busy waiting for the porch light to come on.
6
posted on
02/13/2013 9:33:37 AM PST
by
Ingtar
(Everyone complains about the weather, but only Liberals try to legislate it.)
To: getarope
Let's not forget the Best National Anthem Ever:
Gory, Gory Transylvania
Where werewolves and bats will always maim ya
The murky moat will likely maim ya
As we go stumbling through
7
posted on
02/13/2013 9:34:23 AM PST
by
Squawk 8888
(True North- Strong Leader, Strong Dollar, Strong and Free!)
To: Ingtar
It was a local show that aired in Hamilton, Ontario and later syndicated in the USA so not everyone had it.
8
posted on
02/13/2013 9:36:12 AM PST
by
Squawk 8888
(True North- Strong Leader, Strong Dollar, Strong and Free!)
To: Squawk 8888
> Get out of this house, and dont come back til the street lights come on!
This would be a great tag-line.
9
posted on
02/13/2013 9:42:46 AM PST
by
BuffaloJack
(Your only guarantee of free speech is the gun you own.)
To: Squawk 8888
so this i where MJ got the idea for Vincent Price’s rap segment on THRILLER... cool...
10
posted on
02/13/2013 9:45:51 AM PST
by
latina4dubya
( self-proclaimed tequila snob)
To: Squawk 8888
At the age of 13 in 1972 I was given a speedometer for my purple Schwin Stingray. During the average day during the summer We put 40 miles on that odometer. When school was in session it was around ten miles. We carried fishing gear, skateboards, canned food, sports gear, etc.....as we ventured far and wide from our basecamp neighborhood.
Now kids get a fine and court appearance for the same thing. That and a counselor specializing in childhood obesity.
11
posted on
02/13/2013 9:46:51 AM PST
by
blackdog
(There is no such thing as healing, only a balance between destructive and constructive forces.)
To: blackdog
***At the age of 13 in 1972 ...***
Life was more fun back in the 1950s and 60s.
12
posted on
02/13/2013 9:55:15 AM PST
by
Ruy Dias de Bivar
( Too old to cut the mustard any more.)
To: Squawk 8888
In Los Angeles we had Vampira, then later Seymour, and finally Elvira at night, and a show that was briefly on in the afternoons, Shrimpenstein.
To: SoCal Pubbie
In Pittsburgh we had “Chilly Billy” Cardille who was perhaps the lone horror movie host that did not wear makeup (he apparently thought his normal persona as the Channel 11 weatherman was scary enough) SCTV’s Joe Flaherty, a Pittsburgh native, allegedly based his “Monster Horror Chiller Theater” on Cardille’s show. Chilly Billy is now 84 and still doing a daily radio gig.
To: Buckeye McFrog
In Chicago, we had “Svengoolie”, and now “Son of Svengoolie”, who was a fan of the show who ended up replacing the old guy.
To: Squawk 8888
The Seventies was a lousy time to be a kid.
Oh, sure, it wasnt all bad:
We didnt wear bike helmets. Our parents made us play outside (Get out of this house, and dont come back til the street lights come on!). We bounced around in the back of the station wagon. No one was allergic to peanut butter, or very much else.
We played TACKLE football....without helmets or padding...and baseball without leagues.
16
posted on
02/13/2013 10:52:41 AM PST
by
ExCTCitizen
(More Republicans stayed home then the margin of victory of O's Win...)
To: Boogieman; Buckeye McFrog
Here in the Metro Detroit Area in the 70's, during Saturday Afternoon we had the creepy-campy "Sir Graves Ghastly" and late at night, after the "Lou Gordon Show" we had "The Ghoul"
Plunk yer magic twanger, Froggie!
Hiya Gang, Hiya, Hiya, Hiya...
17
posted on
02/13/2013 11:17:13 AM PST
by
Rebel_Ace
(Tags?!? Tags?!? We don' neeeed no stinkin' Tags!)
To: Rebel_Ace
Found them. Here's The Ghoul:
And here's Sir Graves Ghastly:
18
posted on
02/13/2013 11:22:42 AM PST
by
Rebel_Ace
(Tags?!? Tags?!? We don' neeeed no stinkin' Tags!)
To: blackdog
My bike was my ticket to freedom, that and the 10-cent subway fare.
19
posted on
02/13/2013 11:26:48 AM PST
by
Squawk 8888
(True North- Strong Leader, Strong Dollar, Strong and Free!)
To: Squawk 8888
We used to skip school, take the train into downtown Philadelphia and spend the day in the historical district because we would blend in with all the other kids visiting the Liberty Bell and the Independence Hall. We would go to the museums, exhibits, have lunch in a real restaurant, and ride the train back to the burbs before our parents got home.
Joke's on us I suppose. We didn't need the school.
20
posted on
02/13/2013 12:10:25 PM PST
by
blackdog
(There is no such thing as healing, only a balance between destructive and constructive forces.)
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