Color TV and the NBC Peacock

Update 2021: 

The peacock lives as the corporation uses it as the name of their streaming service.

I do wonder if TV watchers today realize what a joy it was to experience those first shows in color. 

Update: 3/12
Comcast seems to have kept the peacock at least for now.  And haven't read otherwise, but I'll keep an eyes out for the famous feathers...

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I see on the Web that NBC's famous logo with the peacock feathers is going the way of the dodo bird.  Ah, me... This all due to the fact that NBC is now part of Comcast.

Today I'll share some memories about the early days of color television.

In 1959, NBC color broadcast a new western, Bonanza, designed to promote sales of RCA color television sets (RCA being the parent company of NBC).  Bonanza was originally opposite the popular, black and white CBS offering Perry Mason.  I remember watching Perry with my family. But in September1961, NBC moved Bonanza to Sunday night and its popularity grew.

I lived on Silver Bay's Banks Boulevard then, close to Campton school but on the other side of the street, near the end of Charles Circle. The Preston family were next-door neighbors on Banks.  I think they had two boys and one girl, Judy, a year older than me.  Just before school started that year, 1961, the family bought a brand-new color TV! Whether it was an RCA or not, I didn’t notice. On several Sunday evenings I was invited to join the Prestons as they gathered around their new TV set to watch Ben Cartwright and his sons Adam, Hoss and Little Joe.  (I like to think that Mrs. Preston popped corn and poured tumblers of Kool-Aid for us, but I can't say for sure that she did.)  We thrilled to the adventures at the Ponderosa.  But it was amazing just to watch the NBC peacock unfurl its splendid tail.  Sigh...

Silver Bay Kindergarten at Campton School

If I counted correctly there are 41 students in the photo of Mrs. Firminhac's class.  And I happen to know of another member of the Class of 1969 that moved to S.B. in February - so he would have made it 42 students.  (The photo has Christmas decorations.)  Then, you have to figure at least one student was out sick that day, right?  No doubt about that baby boom.



And does this report card not typify America and the American family in the 1950s?  Below is a photo of the front and back of the card.  I never thought of teachers even having a first name when I was in elementary school, but Mrs. F. has signed her name:  La Jean Firminhac.  ( Man, it's hard for me to get the spelling of that last name right.)

 

I'm surprised at how many days I was absent during the year - 18 the first half and 13 the second.  I definitely remember two particular times I was absent.  The first time I had tonsillitis.  I went to Dr. Bloom at the dispensary - which was in the same compound as the Reserve offices, on the lake side of 61.   Dr. Bloom scared me - probably because I spotted the syringe before he gave me a shot in the derriere. At home I took liquid penicillin that was banana flavored.  I liked him better for that.  The other distinct memory of not going to school was because of the measles.  There must have been other illnesses. I doubt I ever stayed home because I didn't want to go.  There were few things I didn't like about school - gym class was one and that was mostly in fifth and sixth grade.  I'll eventually get around to that agony.

Goats - In Hollywood and on the Farm

Today - a bit about my Hollywood neighborhood and also the first neighborhood of my life.   First about the goats I saw last weekend...

Nearly every Sunday morning we go down the hill from our house to a farmer's market - two blocks running north and south on Ivar and two blocks running east and west on Selma are closed to vehicles.  Our grocery list last week included:  fresh mixed greens, baby beets, Satsuma tangerines, baby leeks, tomatoes and fresh mussels from a Carlsbad aqua farm.  Besides the produce stands there are several that sell cheese.  And last Sunday next to one of the stands that sells goat cheese - they also brought along two baby goats.

The black goat in the top photo was 3 days old last Sunday.

Now about my first neighborhood, the farm.  Our small farm was in Harris, Minnesota about 40 miles north of Minneapolis.  As far as animals went we had cows and a dog that herded the cows.  Plus a bunch of cats and before I came along there were some pigs.  But for a short time we also had goats.  The story goes that my sisters wanted a goat - one goat - but my dad being a softy and probably wanting to keep peace with his step daughters went to a neighboring farm and brought home three goats, one for each of my sisters.  Here's the only photo I know of with these goats.   My mom looks like she's having fun but she's probably worried that one of the goats will eat my scarf.

How many who moved to Silver Bay came from farms?  Besides me, I would guess many of my classmates did, too. Leaving the small family farm and moving to industry was the trend.  Doing a spot of research and reading the graph as best I can,  I estimate that in Minnesota alone the number of farms between 1945 and 1955 dropped from 200,000 to 170,00.  Regarding that, for now I will only reflect that kids who moved to Silver Bay in its beginning years lived the move from agricultural to industrial America.  And then, when Reserve closed - we saw the change from industrial to service economy.

Although I lived on a farm for less than 5 years, I think it definitely influenced my life.  Maybe it's the reason I like fresh produce.  Maybe it's the reason that I had to take a picture of the goats last Sunday with the camera on my phone. Or, maybe I took the photo because I love goat cheese.

Living in a Safe, Beautiful Nurturing Bubble

After losing my high school friend Julie last week I haven't felt like posting anything cheery the past few days. So this post will be more reflective.  A few of my former Kelley classmates have e-mailed me.  Here are two descriptions they used to describe Silver Bay in those messages: microcosm and naive childhood.


I cannot begin to count how many times I heard Mom and my mother-in-law Ruby say that "Silver Bay was a good place to bring up kids." A few years ago I told stories about Silver Bay in a coffee house.  Then I started writing.  As I work on a memoir of that time and place, I struggle with the central point of the venture.  It was in the main such a happy childhood.  So safe and secure. Was it too safe and secure?  Was there a downside of living in a bubble off  Highway 61?  Did Silver Bay's sheltered life prepare us enough for life in the bigger world?  I wonder if any of my classmates have any thoughts on the subject.

I suspect that the upside wins out.  The older I get the more I suspect that safety in childhood gives a person resilience and, in the main, a stable optimistic state of mind.  In the main, I believe that safety and security is best for as long as possible.  There will plenty opportunities later to face fear of all kinds.



  

Remembering Friend Julie and Happy Days

Both pictures in Silver Bay - June 1969.  Top one - Julie with many friends.  Julie is down front - in green sweater.   During a Friday night slumber party years earlier ... She laughed so hard she snagged her braces on a pillow case... the next day she had to travel to her orthodontist in Two Harbors.

The bottom photo:  Julie and Susie - both my bestest high school buddies.

Silver Bay - Trailer Court

My family moved to Silver Bay in 1956 - not long before school began.  My first years were spent on our farm in Harris, Minnesota. (Remember, we all came from somewhere else.) While we waited for a house we lived in the trailer court.   The trailer court was on the lake side of Highway 61, not far from the Reserve offices.  I have a booklet of photos with 1956 printed on the side of each - probably taken up to Rexall Drug for processing.

When we drove off 61 and into the trailer court on that first day, Mom said she'd never seen me "act so wild" before. Until then I'd only played with one or two children at a time.  And on the trailer court's playground that first day, there were dozens of kids - I ran from the car whooping and shouting.

In addition to trailers, the "court" included rustic lake cabins, moved from Lake Superior tourist resorts. The land was purchased to build Reserve Mining Company, the reason Silver Bay was created.

 

Here's our first S.B. home:

 
Unlike our farmhouse, the two-bedroom cabin had running water and a bathroom.

The Sankers lived next in a cabin next to us and Joan became my first girlfriend.  Families that lived in the trailers included the Jensens and the Fitzgeralds, with boys who, if my memory is correct, were in Mrs. Firmhinac's kindergarten class with me. As was Joan. In 1969, they all graduated from S.B's Kelley High School with me

This photo booklet includes this picture, taken on one of my Red Letter Days: first day of school.
 

Mom sewed my dress and "pinafore."  The dog is Boots. (I may write about him later.)
I still haven't found my kindergarten class picture!  Luckily there's one in 1969's Silver Log.

Reading Matters - Campton School, 4th grade

The other classrooms at Campton were along the main corridor of the school.  Mrs. Mattson’s fourth grade room was tucked midway between the library and the cafeteria.  Maybe it designed to be a place for choir/band/orchestra practice? Unlike the other classrooms the space had no lockers for coats and boots and no sink where we could up clean up after messy art projects.  Its small size and location made it seem cozy.  

I recall magical afternoons while we listened on the installment plan, one or two chapters per session.  Sometimes a book would take weeks. Our teacher often chose thick books. The intimidating page count might keep us from checking these books out of our school or public library. Not wanting to wait until another afternoon to hear what happened next, we would sometimes beg her to continue reading and, because she was easygoing, she sometimes agreed.  Mrs. Mattson’s eclectic mixture of fiction and non-fiction introduced me to genres that I might not have otherwise read, and by the end of the year my favorite characters were Dr. Doolittle and Marie Curie.

She encouraged us to read on our own, too. Each week Mrs. M would lead us around the corner from our room to the Campton School library.  Every month we’d receive a newsletter from the Scholastic Book Club to order slim, inexpensive paperbacks for our personal collection.  Our purchases helped earn free, bonus books for our classroom.

And she instituted a contest.  Mrs. M. gave us each a sheet of paper with the picture of a block house that she had hand drawn and copied with the ditto machine in the school’s office. After printing our names at the top we thumb-tacked the sheets onto our classroom’s bulletin board. After reading a book we would use crayon to color one rectangle, starting from the bottom of our house, and write down the book’s title in a column to the side of the paper. The first one to color in every block of their house won the contest.  I did my best, but Harold read a slew of books.  He beat us to the top of the chimney first. Harold, did you win a prize?

Some of the books I checked out of the Campton library in 4^th, 5^th and 6^th grades to read at home:

A series about the Mushroom Planet by Eleanor Cameron

A series with the main character Mrs. Piggle Wiggle

A series with the main character Mr. Pickerel

A book about Johnny Tremaine by Esther Forbes

All of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books

Landmark biographies about Alexander Graham Bell, Luther

    Burbank and George Washington Carver

Books I checked out from the library (at least once) but for some reason never managed to read:

Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder

A book about a horse named Smokey

Fairy Tale Collections of various colors: green, red, yellow, etc.

My hometowns - Silver Bay and Los Angeles

People here in LA often refer to it as a series of small towns.  My family often asks if  I live in Hollywood or Los Angeles. Hollywood is not a city of its own but part of Los Angeles.  If you know Silver Bay you  might not think that these two "towns" have anything in common.  Au contraire.  When I moved to Silver Bay in 1956, all my friends came from somewhere else.  Silver Bay didn't exist until 1955 or 1956 (I have research in a file somewhere which gives the exact date).  And in Los Angeles - nearly everyone comes here from somewhere else, too.  It's an old joke - if you've lived here a year, you're a native.  So maybe that's why Los Angeles seemed familiar to me when I moved here.

For my Silver Bay friends...

Not long ago I saw my class picture from kindergarten - Mrs. Firmhinac's class. Now it's gone missing. Instead I scanned my personal photo.

So, why this blog?  I spent several years in a storytelling group in North Hollywood.  Told many stories about life in Silver Bay and then began to write them down.  At some point I was reading "Angela's Ashes" and came to a quote about a happy childhood not being worth your while.  Then on a visit to Duluth my Duluthian aunt told me, "Silver Bay?  You can write a whole book about that?"  You can't hear her inflection.  Let's say the subtext I heard was: "How in the world could anyone write much of anything about a dinky little town which was never interesting in the least and who in the world would want to read such a book."

My original title - FROM THE TACONITE CAPITAL OF THE WORLD.

A good blog is a short blog.  Enough for today.

UPDATE 5/24/14
I still plan to write my Minnesota childhood memoir one day.  I honestly believe the town gave its young people a place to feel safe and secure - that ultimately made us more contented as adults.  I leave it to a sociologist to do a study of the early days of Silver Bay.  One of the possible titles of my S.B. memoir is Days of Wonder.   I would appreciate any comments if you happen upon this or other blog entries.  Cheers, L.