Saturday, June 18, 2022

Saturday Night Fare

 



I've written before about the Saturday night dance held in Boise during my adolescent years. How I would go to those even after my neck break and those in a wheelchair. I started going to the dances when I was 14 – – that's when the local religious authority, who governed the dances, said a person is eligible. So I went a whole year before my accident. I guess the point I'm making is that I had to get there somehow which meant I usually had my dad take me to the church and later drive me back home. More often than not he actually just ended up laying down in the station wagon and sleeping the 3 hours I was at the dance.


It's Saturday evening and it's not as hot as it has been but the clouds moved in and the wind continues to blow. For some reason all of these vectors have me thinking about what my dad sacrificed for me on Saturday nights so I could go to the dance. I'm not sure why perhaps because the show Gunsmoke about a fictitious Sheriff of Dodge city Kansas in the late 1800s. I think my dad, who I think claimed that he was Kansas, love that show for that very reason. I'd never heard him say such a thing but I can believe it though remember him settling down and watching that show every Saturday night that he could. Of course I remember this post of those years leading up to the time I was old enough to go to the dances. I also remember that my dad worked so hard that once he sat down to watch Gunsmoke which I believed was broadcast in our area about 8 PM he would almost immediately nod off to sleep. I used to think this was so weird now however, I see things much different.


What really blows me away is that as I was actually watching another movie when I began thinking about this posting but I actually did a search for Gunsmoke. What I actually wanted was the timeslot for Boise Idaho in 1965 that the local television station KB OI would've televised the segment. I was not able to get the exact time of the televised segments but was able to get the name of this segment that was televised on that date in 1965. I have to admit this blew me away and still blows me away that all this information is available what you really outstandingly unique is that if I wanted I could watch the actual segment exactly as it was broadcast minus the commercials! If I wanted I could pull down a list of every Gunsmoke segments produced and watch them all if I wanted to. Last night just for fun I watched 3 hours of Gray's Anatomy, the medical show which is run for almost 20 years on ABC. I was astounded to find out there are over 400 segments of Gray's anatomy.


I never remember my dad complaining about having to load me up in the back of the station wagon and drive me across town to the 3rd Ward stake center for the Saturday night dance. Sure could have and I'm sure I would really felt guilty that he did not. He just loaded me up drove me over then took a nap until I was done. I almost said I would doubt of the net for my kid but you know what? I sort of did. When Mark Anthony was doing his karate/tae kwon do experience it was every Wednesday night driving over to his house picking them up and going to the workout and then home again. It wasn't quite the same as missing Gunsmoke on Saturday night but I guess it was more important for me to help out Mark Anthony and it was for me to indulge in my television pleasures. This was not intended as a Father's Day tribute really don't believe in those things but you know what the kind of is…

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