“Premature burial works just fine as a cure for adolescence.”
The sun is warm and bright. The sky is blue from front to back and top to bottom. From my window here in the den, I can see the top branches of the huge oak tree. The sunshine glints on its leaves and highlights every vein and stem. Gracie and I have already been outside just standing on the deck and taking in the morning.
I don’t remember exactly how old I was when Saturday morning television was no longer an incentive to hurry out of bed, get my breakfast, my cereal and milk, and plunk down in front of the TV. Howdy and Sky and Boris and Natasha had been replaced for sleeping-in. My life was changing, and I didn’t really notice. Changes sometimes happen that way. Their arrival is subtle. All of a sudden clothes became important. Saturday matinees were for kids. I didn’t want to go anywhere with my family. My parents didn’t understand me. My room became my refuge. I didn’t have to be sent there anymore. I went willingly, gladly. I was an adolescent.
My mind is quick, and I have a history of wonderfully clever comments. They started jumping out of my mouth about the same time I began my adolescence. My father was often my straight man. He made comments which begged for a response, and I could seldom resist. Sometimes he’d ask questions, rhetorical to him, fodder for me. My favorite was, “What do you think you’re doing?” Never once was he happy with my answers, but I loved each and every one of them and would have grinned at my cleverness, but that would have been way over the top.
It wasn’t until I went to college that we reached an understanding, a truce of sorts.
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsTags: adolescence, changes, parents
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keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
August 28, 2010 at 11:13 am
Have you seen today’s obits?
http://tiny.cc/vd7w0
August 28, 2010 at 11:49 am
Thanks for the obit. Penny will live on forever in the memories of the boys who lusted after her even before they knew what lusting was all about. Too bad that Sky King, along with others such as Zoro or The Lone Ranger, are not being re-run somewhere on TV. Kids today are being deprived of some fun television that is not trying to sell them some product.
August 28, 2010 at 12:20 pm
I do miss Zorro.
August 29, 2010 at 1:36 pm
Thanks, im6
I hadn’t seen it. I used to be jealous of her flying with Sky King.
August 28, 2010 at 12:07 pm
August 28, 2010 at 12:10 pm
geez..i was just intending to post the link to the
video. not the whole thing. sorry, kat.
August 28, 2010 at 12:56 pm
Thanks for the memory. This was a later episode because it shows Sky flying a Cessna 310 circa 1956 or so. The early shows had Sky flying a Cessna T50 Bobcat which were produced during and after WWII. The Bobcat was a tail wheel, fabric airframe with Radial engines. I guess Sky didn’t really fly either of them. In the 1970s I flew and gave flight instruction in various models of the 310. I always was thought of Sky King while at the controls of this fun airplane.
August 29, 2010 at 1:37 pm
No sorry necessary-it was fun to watch
August 28, 2010 at 1:12 pm
We had a quite pleasant day here today until the thunderstorm arrived. Lightning went out of my telephone several times and then the hail came. I think my tomatoe plants just died and also my Cattleya orchids that stood on the entrence stairs. The temperature dropped to 45F within minutes.
But no mosquitoes disturbed us on our walk after the storm 🙂 🙂
I never grew out of those morning programs, I still watch them on Saturdays 🙂 🙂
Have a great day now!
Christer.
August 29, 2010 at 1:38 pm
Christer,
It was a perfect day for the party yesterday, and the night was just cool enough. Today too is beautiful. These days are gifts after the three days of rain.
August 28, 2010 at 3:08 pm
I remember exactly Kat. I was 13 and was told to get a summer job so I was lucky to get a paper route given up that week in my neighborhood. I was up every morning thereafter at 4AM to pack a hundred Washington Posts together for three different deliveries. They had to be at the front door of customers before 7AM. I rode my bike in the dark and went back home for re-load; left again for the final haul; was tired, exhausted, went back to bed . . . no more Saturday shows. YUP! They were for kids after that. Thanks for the memory. We were growing up.
August 29, 2010 at 1:40 pm
Z&Me,
We were growing up and I think becoming a teenager made me think I wasn’t a kid anymore. Sleep was just more attractive after a busy Friday night.
August 29, 2010 at 9:02 am
Hi Kat,
I remember spending my teenage Saturdays in my room or working. Except for Rocky and Bullwinkle and Beanie and Cecil, the Saturday morning shows got packed away with my dolls and stuffed animals.
My father and I had a somewhat adversarial relationship. He thought little girls were supposed to be frilly, doll-like things. Don’t know where he got the idea because none of the women in his family were anything like that. We all had brains and mouths and weren’t afraid to use either. Maybe it was wishful thinking on his part. 🙂
August 29, 2010 at 1:41 pm
Hi Caryn,
My dad and I were the same. I had a mind of my own and wasn’t afraid to use it. He once called me the most assertive of his kids, and I thought it a great compliment.
August 29, 2010 at 1:49 pm
Caryn,
I loved Zorro.
Out of the night when the full moon was bright comes a horseman known as Zorro!