What was on TV March 18th through 24th, 1978

It's time once again for my irregular feature, What was on TV.  This week, it's March 18th through the 24th of 1978 with a  Lyndsey Wagner cover.

Can He Swing from a Thread?

While I enjoy going to garage and estate sales for the thrill of the hunt, it's always nice when I can make a little scratch from my finds.   Thinking back to my childhood,  I guess I've always tried to make a buck where I could.

There were the "original" Spider-man stories I sold which were actually one-page typed, worked over retellings of episodes of the 1967 Spider-man cartoon which I watched religiously every day after school.  I sold those for fifty cents each to willing (read gullible) classmates.  Then there were the hand-drawn comic strips featuring my own creations which I would sell for a quarter a piece.  Perhaps I was taking advantage of my classmates, but at least they were getting a deliverable product for their money.

When I found this vintage '70's squirt ring at an estate sale a few months ago, my mind spun back (foreshadowing pun intended) to the 5th grade and an unrealized business venture.

It's Got a Beat and I Can Pray to It

For the last few days, all eyes (okay, not all but a lot of eyes) have been on Rome and the Vatican.  And when the smoke cleared (literally) today, we Catholics had a new leader.  It seems like an appropriate time to profile the flexi-disc I found at an estate sale about a month ago.  Entitled, "The Voice of the Holy Father", it's a recording of Pope Pius XII made in 1949.

 

It's double-sided.

A digitally cleaned version of side 1 can be heard here.  Strangely, the announcer speaks longer than the Pope actually does.

A less than stellar recording of side 2 can be heard here.  Side 2 suffered from warping more so than side 1, so some skipping occurs.  I also didn't apply a filter to that side. Hey, it was late and I was getting tired.

Cowboys and Indians



Given the distractions offered kids on long car trips these days in the form of phones and tablets (*editors not: updated for 2020 from "flip down tvs, dvd players and handheld game systems" in original 2013 post), it's hard to imagine how they would have tolerated the cross-country drives my siblings and I took during the 1960's and 70's.  Back then, the trip was part of the experience and it wasn't the interstate race to your destination that it's become today.

In fact, one of my favorite aspects of a classic roadtrip was the stop at various tourist trap gift shops where one could pick up a rubber tomahawk, faux leather-covered tom-toms or a dyed chicken feather headdress.  These were common items you could find in any gift shops in the far western states such as Tennessee or North Carolina (sarcasm implied; I live in Missouri).  While all 50 states can certainly lay claim to occupation by Native Americans, one normally associates such accoutrements with the plains states tribes.  I grew up watching cowboy and indian movies and televison shows and had more than a little fear of meeting an actual "indian", although I knew some were friendly like Tonto.  I have a vivid memory of being in Cherokee, North Carolina and spying a  Native American sporting what in my memory looked more like a Hollywood interpretation of native dress than traditional Cherokee.  I imagine he was offering  to have your picture taken with him for a donation, but I thought he might attack at any moment.  Noticing my apprehension, he looked down at me and smiled and I gathered the courage to ask, "Are you a good indian or a bad indian?"  He laughed and assured me he was good.

Sorry for the rambling story, but this really does lead to nice little find I acquired at an estate sale a couple weekends back.  I recall seeing figures like these at tourist gift shops on these trips.  I never bought any though, always opting for the more action-oriented items mentioned above.