What Was Your Favorite TV Show as a Child?

Believe it or not...I did not have a television until I was 5 years old.
At least, we did not have one in our own house.  We lived with my grandparents until I was about 3 years old.  They had an old Zenith that my grandmother had until the day she died in 1984 (?).
When we moved to 1417 Olive Street, we lived there for awhile before we had a TV.  We only lived a block from my grandparents, so I walked down there every day to watch "Popeye Theater" with Sally Starr.
       
I couldn't get along without My Gal Sal.  Popeye Theater also had other cartoons and The Three Stooges. 

I lOVED the Three Stooges, especially Curly.  He was so funny.  Moe was mean.  Larry was wishy-washy.

Growing up the shows were "Sky King" and "Howdy Doody" on Saturdays.

Other favorites of mine were Leave it to Beaver, Father Knows Best, Ozzie and Harriet, Danny Thomas' Make Room for Daddy, Dick Van Dyke, and Burns and Allen. 
     
I remember my mother used to watch the Loretta Young show and I was enthralled that she came out to introduce her show and twirled around so her dress would whirl and whirl.  I loved that.
I don't know which was my favorite.  I loved the way the families were portrayed. 
Later came "The Waltons."  It was about a big family during the depression.  I could relate to the big family thing.  Then there was"Little House on the Prairie." We used to watch those shows as a family.
 

We got a color TV in 1968.  I LOVED to watch the Carol Burnett show and see the color of her gowns every week.  We always wondered what they looked like.  She was another who did a twirl when she came out on stage to interact with the audience. And who can forget the parody on "Gone With the Wind?" It was the funniest thing on TV!
 
And, with color, of course--"The Wonderful World of Disney!"  Oh!  The color!


Sad to say, our kids today did not grow up with the family friendly TV shows of my generation.  They can get them on Nick at Night or TVLand, but we watched them when they were fresh!  And New!

These are my favorites. What was YOUR favorite TV show as a child?

Is There a Movie You Have Watched Over and Over? Why is it so special to you?

I have said before I loved "The Wizard of Oz" and have seen it probably every year of my life since I started watching television!  I have seen "The Sound of Music" many, many times as well.  I went to see that in Philadelphia at the premiere with my Girl Scout Troop.  I think it was in 1964.

Other movies I like to watch again and again include "Groundhog Day" (I like to watch that on Feb. 2 of each year); "Peggy Sue Got Married" (I wish that could happen in real life!); "Little Women" (the Winona Rider version--I watch that every year as I wrap Christmas presents).

The one I most enjoy to watch is "It's a Wonderful Life."  It's a family tradition to watch that every Christmas Eve.  We all love that movie! It wouldn't be Christmas without it.



And so, dear readers, I ask you:  What Is Your Favorite Movie?

What is Your Favorite Book?

Books, like songs...very difficult to pick just one, but I have said before that my very favorite book (excepting the Holy Scriptures) is "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Bronte'.

I love how there are twists and turns in every chapter.  Just when you think you know what's going to happen, something is thrown in to throw you off.

It's a love story; it's suspenseful; it's OLD, which I like.  I love Brit Lit.  I also like American Lit--and French Lit.

As for American Literature, I love "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott. 

I also love "Gone With the Wind" by Margaret Mitchell-- the book (and the movie, too, I confess).  And, of course, "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee.

      

For French Literature, my very favorite is "The Count of Monte Cristo" by Alexandre Dumas.

I love to read historical fiction.  It is my favorite genre.  I love to be swept away by the words, the language, the descriptions, the geography, the characters...

And so I ask my readers...What is YOUR favorite book or genre?

Do You Have a Favorite Song?

I supposed one of my favorite songs is "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."  I loved "The Wizard of Oz" growing up as a child.  It came on TV every February and we all couldn't wait.  This was before VCRs and DVDs.  You had to wait a whole year to see a movie you liked.  They were only on once a year.  I guess the royalties were too much for television stations to pay back then.

I always longed to see it in color.  Finally, in 1968, we got a color TV.  It was so exciting to start watching the movie in black and white, then, when Dorothy entered Oz, she walked out of her house and into COLOR!

   

But, I digress...

I have many favorite songs and songsters....the Beatles, the Monkees, the Beach Boys, Simon & Garfunkel, Carole King, Joni Mitchell, James Taylor...

As for hymns...

I love the hymn "I Believe in Christ."  That hymn says it all.

If I had a number two hymn....hmmmm..."I Know That My Redeemer Lives."

I also like "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" and the song they sang in the Winona Ryder version of "Little Women,"  and I can't remember the name of it right now...where they sang at Meg's wedding in a circle.  It'll come to me later...

What is YOUR favorite song?

Who Were You Named After?

I am going to skip the really personal information, i.e. birth info, names, places, since this is a public blog and I don't want that kind of information leaking out.  These may be gotten elsewhere, but the first questions deal with name and name selection.
I imagine my father selected my name since I am named after my paternal great-grandmother in New Orleans. 

                               Susan Marie Hoerner Tobelmann, my great-grandmother namesake

As a child, my nickname, according to my picture albums that my dad kept for us, was Susie.  My childhood friend, Laurie, always called me Susie.  I later changed the spelling to Suzi because it was easier to accomplish with a brush when I started adding my signature when I began painting in oils.  And, in those days, everyone started ending their names in 'i' instead of 'y' or 'ie.'  My dad sometimes called me Suze (rhymes with snooze).

Susie, at two years old

In Catholic school you didn't have nick names, so when I went to public high school, I told everyone my name was Sue.  I was Sue all through high school.

"Sue" in high school

I dropped Sue when I moved to Colorado.  My roommate, M. Catherine Ray, said it sounded too cheerleader.  She called me Susan, or Susita.  So, I've been Susan ever since.

Almost all my siblings are named after someone in the family.  I didn't like this when I was younger.  I thought everyone should have their own name, but when I started working on genealogy, I realized it was so much easier to track people who had been named after someone so you knew what family they belonged to.

Tobelmann siblings, 1979

From left, front:  Christine Mary (Mary after our grandmother, Mary Louise), Susan Marie (after our great-grandmother Hoerner), Andrew Louis (after Granny's father, Andrew Louis Heffner); back row: Jeffrey Charles (Charles is an ancestor name), John Robert (Robert is my father's cousin), Catherine Louise (Catherine after our mother, Louise after our grandmother, Mary Louise), Warren Phillip (Warren after uncles on both sides and Phillip after our maternal great-grandfather Phillip Fair McNelly) and last, but not least, Henry Joseph, III (after Henry Joseph, Jr. and Henry Joseph, Sr. and Henry Rudolf, etc., etc., ad infinitum)

All of my children have middle names after somebody, except Tim.  Timothy is his middle name.

That's all for day one.  I don't want to make this too tedious, or I may not come back to it.

I was just wondering, though...were any of my readers named after anyone in particular?  What is your nickname?