Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Just a quick update...
It's kind of been a madhouse around here so I haven't been able to write the next post. BUT DON'T WORRY! I'll be getting around to it shortly. In the meantime though, I'll be taking a little trip down memory lane this weekend and I'm going to bring my camera with me and snap some shots of my old homes and schools. Granted everything will look quite a bit different now but you'll get the basic idea. So as long as I don't get picked up by the cops for driving around neighborhoods and school area's with a camera, I should have them up by early next week!
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Star Trek: TNG, X-Files, ER, and Mom
When my tastes for TV started to refine and distil into the perfection that they are today (I will not accept debate on this matter!), it geared towards the sci-fi, unexplained and a dollop of drama to bind everything together. I’m not saying I didn’t love sitcoms such as Married with Children and Simpsons, but I’m going to leave that for another post.
For this post, I’m going to focus on 3 specific shows that I enjoyed immensely not only because they were great shows but they were also the 3 shows that my Mother and I would set aside time to watch together. Star Trek: The Next Generation, X-Files and ER. I’m not sure if Mom really cared for the shows themselves (with the exception maybe of ER) but I think she just saw it as a bonding time with me.
My Mothers’ and my TV bonding began probably around 1990 and I would be 11 years old or so. Star Trek: TNG had started a few years earlier and although I did watch it when we lived in Orangeville, I was only 8 and didn’t really get into it. Mom and I started watching Star Trek on Friday nights when we lived in Grand Valley. It was great and something we looked forward to during the entire week. The weeks’ worth of anticipation though could be shattered in a heartbeat though if a storm blew in (especially a snow storm) and we were unable to get a clear picture using the antenna!
Here’s a little side note:
Yes… we used an antenna back in those days before Mom and Dad broke down and got cable. For those of you who have never used an antenna, you have a small dial in the house that you use to rotate and point the antenna. Most people, like us, had a small sticker with the channel written on it somewhere on the dial and that’s where you rotated it to in order to get the clearest picture. It could be a family game to see who could get the picture in best IF you didn’t care what you were watching and had time for it. However, it could be a real pain in the ass if there was a program on you really wanted to watch and there was some sort of electrical disturbance! Many a night we would watch snow on the television and squint until some sort of picture would materialize. To this day I still can’t see one of those 3D posters where some sort of picture jumps out at you. I blame years of looking at the TV like Mr. Magoo studying a quadratic equation.
Back to Friday Nights! Mom and I would settle in to watch Star Trek every Friday night usually with a bowl of popcorn (and a bowl of corn syrup for Mom... don’t let her tell you she didn’t have a sweet tooth!). My eyes would be glued to the television and Mom would usually ask a question or two when the episode was done. To this day I don’t think she was really interested in the show itself but just having something we could both talk about during the week and look forward to together was enough.
Star Trek: TNG sadly ended in ’94 but X-Files had started the year before and was on right after Star Trek so we already had our new viewing hour in place. A cool side note on the final episode of Star Trek: TNG, City TV aired the final episode on the JumboTron at the Skydome in Toronto (now called the Rogers Centre or something like that). Dad was in Toronto at a conference for work and scored me a ticket as a souvenir! I still have it to this day!
Now X-Files was a bit different from Star Trek and I think Mom enjoyed it more. A few of the episodes would get our hearts racing or choking on popcorn. And the best part about the show (aside from the ultra cool premise) was it was filmed in Canada! Well the first few seasons anyways Until Duchoveny had a hissy fit about travelling so much. All in all… Friday nights rocked!
1994 also brought a new series that Mom and I would watch on Thursday nights. The show was ER and honestly, the only reason I started watching this show was because it was created Michael Crichton of Jurassic Park fame. After those first few episodes though, I became hooked. Mom I think was a bigger fan though so it became something else we could watch and talk about during the week.
It may seem like all I ever did was watch TV or movies with my folks at this point but you have to realize that when you get to a certain age, you really don’t have TOO much in common with your parents. You are growing, developing and finding out who you are. And that usually is with friends your own age, not your folks. Setting aside a few hours a week though for something we all enjoyed kind of grounded me in those hectic times.
This was a bit more of a nostalgic post but I’ll try to make the next one a little more amusing. I’m calling it “A Fishing Trip, A Search Party, A Dead Dog and the Wrath of Grandma”
For this post, I’m going to focus on 3 specific shows that I enjoyed immensely not only because they were great shows but they were also the 3 shows that my Mother and I would set aside time to watch together. Star Trek: The Next Generation, X-Files and ER. I’m not sure if Mom really cared for the shows themselves (with the exception maybe of ER) but I think she just saw it as a bonding time with me.
My Mothers’ and my TV bonding began probably around 1990 and I would be 11 years old or so. Star Trek: TNG had started a few years earlier and although I did watch it when we lived in Orangeville, I was only 8 and didn’t really get into it. Mom and I started watching Star Trek on Friday nights when we lived in Grand Valley. It was great and something we looked forward to during the entire week. The weeks’ worth of anticipation though could be shattered in a heartbeat though if a storm blew in (especially a snow storm) and we were unable to get a clear picture using the antenna!
Here’s a little side note:
Yes… we used an antenna back in those days before Mom and Dad broke down and got cable. For those of you who have never used an antenna, you have a small dial in the house that you use to rotate and point the antenna. Most people, like us, had a small sticker with the channel written on it somewhere on the dial and that’s where you rotated it to in order to get the clearest picture. It could be a family game to see who could get the picture in best IF you didn’t care what you were watching and had time for it. However, it could be a real pain in the ass if there was a program on you really wanted to watch and there was some sort of electrical disturbance! Many a night we would watch snow on the television and squint until some sort of picture would materialize. To this day I still can’t see one of those 3D posters where some sort of picture jumps out at you. I blame years of looking at the TV like Mr. Magoo studying a quadratic equation.
Back to Friday Nights! Mom and I would settle in to watch Star Trek every Friday night usually with a bowl of popcorn (and a bowl of corn syrup for Mom... don’t let her tell you she didn’t have a sweet tooth!). My eyes would be glued to the television and Mom would usually ask a question or two when the episode was done. To this day I don’t think she was really interested in the show itself but just having something we could both talk about during the week and look forward to together was enough.
Star Trek: TNG sadly ended in ’94 but X-Files had started the year before and was on right after Star Trek so we already had our new viewing hour in place. A cool side note on the final episode of Star Trek: TNG, City TV aired the final episode on the JumboTron at the Skydome in Toronto (now called the Rogers Centre or something like that). Dad was in Toronto at a conference for work and scored me a ticket as a souvenir! I still have it to this day!
Now X-Files was a bit different from Star Trek and I think Mom enjoyed it more. A few of the episodes would get our hearts racing or choking on popcorn. And the best part about the show (aside from the ultra cool premise) was it was filmed in Canada! Well the first few seasons anyways Until Duchoveny had a hissy fit about travelling so much. All in all… Friday nights rocked!
1994 also brought a new series that Mom and I would watch on Thursday nights. The show was ER and honestly, the only reason I started watching this show was because it was created Michael Crichton of Jurassic Park fame. After those first few episodes though, I became hooked. Mom I think was a bigger fan though so it became something else we could watch and talk about during the week.
It may seem like all I ever did was watch TV or movies with my folks at this point but you have to realize that when you get to a certain age, you really don’t have TOO much in common with your parents. You are growing, developing and finding out who you are. And that usually is with friends your own age, not your folks. Setting aside a few hours a week though for something we all enjoyed kind of grounded me in those hectic times.
This was a bit more of a nostalgic post but I’ll try to make the next one a little more amusing. I’m calling it “A Fishing Trip, A Search Party, A Dead Dog and the Wrath of Grandma”
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