Charles Circle, NBC and the Three Stooges

Today - a little more about watching TV oh so many years ago.  In the last blog I wrote about my first color TV experience. My family lived on Banks.  Now, I'll go back to second grade when we lived on Charles Circle, our first house in  Silver Bay after leaving the trailer court.  (I will no doubt write in the future about why I lived in not one but three Silver Bay houses.)  Oh, how joyful it felt to be in an exclusive club because I had watched the Cartwright family in color.  Oh, but when you're not in the TV club.. what sorrow!

Now I'll take you back to 1959-1960. Here is one of the few pics I can find that shows our home at 37 Charles.  It was located - and I assume still is - at the corner of Banks and Charles nearest the shopping center.  The other end of Charles was nearest Campton.

The Tweeto family lived next door and the Varneys were across the street.  I think that Harold Varney (my class) or his brother Mark (one year older?) might be the boy on the bicycle.

But back to my sad story about television at 37 Charles. No matter how many times Daddy adjusted the aerial on the roof, we could not get reception from Channel 6, the NBC affiliate in Duluth.  We only had two stations in Silver Bay then.  The WDIO tower in Duluth wasn't built until later.

So, I would go to second grade, Mrs. Sarf's class.  And my classmates, especially the boys, would be goofing around like the Stooges and I did not know who these Stooges were!  Captain Q. included short films with the Stooges on his show - and this was on Channel 6 which we did not get at my house.  Of course I pretended to know all about the Stooges.  I did not know how to put it then, but certainly I felt culturally deprived. Simply put - I was out of the club. And when you're seven, it feels awful. Which Stooge is your favorite? someone asked me. I could barely swallow from fear that the truth of my Stooge ignorance would be revealed. I think I said Moe because it was the only Stooge name I could remember.

That's all for today.  Cheers to all and a special thanks to Silver Bay friends who have e-mailed.