A Visit with Dear Old Friends

They were more like family ...

One Saturday morning several years ago, I woke up way too early, but was unable to get back to sleep. Not ready to head to the computer, and feeling too nice to wake up Robert, I poured myself a cup of coffee and I don't know why, but I turned on the TV.

Between sips, I flipped through the network programming, which at that time of the morning, was meager at best. I was searching for something, anything, to fill a few minutes, but all I could find were brainless ads for makeup, vacuum cleaners, gym equipment, and the ever present televangelists looking for money.

Then, suddenly, I found myself immersed in a kind of crazy time warp.  I had somehow time traveled through dozens of years and I was a child again.

On the TV screen in my living room was The Lone Ranger on his white horse, Silver.  It was surreal, to again be a part of something I enjoyed, something I felt so comfortable watching, so many years before.  

Then, just as quickly, I was transported to Mayberry where I accompanied Andy, Aunt Bea, and Opie on their latest escapade on the Andy Griffith Show.

When that was over, I found myself in Dodge City, Kansas, with Matt Dillon, Doc, Chester, and Miss Kitty in Gunsmoke.

I only caught the last few minutes of Lassie. Timmy was lost and, same as always, Lassie found him and brought him home safely.

I was amazed at how easily I welcomed all of them back into my life. They were much more than TV characters. They were a big part of my extended family and I really cared about them way back then.

I lost several hours that Saturday morning, but they were good, quality hours. It was just like old times and yet I was seeing these people and places from an older much different perspective and through different eyes.

As a child, these people were larger than life and they were real to me. For as long as the show was on, I was right there with them, listening and learning.

Watching them as an adult, I could see the importance of what I had been simply reminded of. Those shows did it right. All of them reinforced the same values and lessons my parents were teaching us: honesty and truthfulness, the importance of family, obeying the law, and the same values I passed on to my three daughters, that still matter with my grandchildren.

Who are the quality role models for today's children that reinforce parental and family values? I shudder to think parents are too busy now to teach them values and lessons. It would be a double shudder to think today’s children could be raising themselves with only violent and bloody video games as role models.

I wonder what those are teaching our children and grandchildren ...

Hi-Yo Silver …

Poet/Writer/Author of 5 books.
Quora Top Writer 2018.
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