They exist only in the memory of the lucky survivors of the long-retired sawmill towns called Bates and Izee, Oregon.

I am, by “The Grace of God”, a survivor, for the moment.

TV (short for Television) was connected by cable from a company-owned tower on top of a nearby mountain. Only one channel, KBOI TV, affiliated with CBS in Boise, Idaho, was the only broadcaster who had the power to reach the eager eyes of loggers, sawmill workers, and their boisterous children.

While the men still worked, the wives cleaned the house or tidied up the dining room, their lean, active children were lying on the floor at 3:00 pm waiting for “Heck Harper and The OK Corell.”

Some lucky kids from the city, in Boise, would be on television, in the broadcast studio, with Heck himself, and they could show their smiling faces to everyone and even say their names. Yes, they would be stars, just like the “Queen for a Day” crybabies their mothers had seen while their normally noisy children were at school. Okay, the kids didn’t win any washing machines, but we knew they were all winners.

Those Boise kids, they’d had “The Limelight,” their “Day In The Sun,” and “Wow, were we ever jealous or what? We all wanted to be” BIG TV STARS “too, but” No Such Luck. ” from Sawmill we were lucky if we had TV.

So, like “Starving Children in China”, we wait. Just a “Sugar Pops” and maybe a healthy “CoCo Puffs” or “Sugar Jets” commercial, and then the “Autry-Roger’s Ranch” segment of “The Heck Harper Show” would capture our “Wide Open” minds.

As “Little Children in Toyland,” we would be taught morals. Our values ​​will be shaped by “True Singing Cowboys” whose lives and clean music will reflect the splendor of the “Hero”, the boots and spurs we long for.

Poor kids today are caught up with “Tennis Shoe Sports Stars” and “Waco Rappers,” whose music reflects the harsh reality of “The Ghettos From Whence They Came.” Michael Jorden is “An Aging Earth Angel”, sent from heaven, but I doubt that many others are. “Heroes” should be “good” at more than just “hoops.” Money is “bad perfume” for those who “are perishing.” Children “kill” for tennis shoes and “hit each other.” Up “for warm-up jackets.

Television has changed, along with us “SawMill Kids”, as we age.

I remember my first big disappointment on tevevision. Ed Sullivan said he would “be right back with Micky Mantal.” When Ed came back after the Areowax commercial, he asked who Micky’s favorite baseball player was. He hoped his guest was Micky Mouse.

Ed Sullivan was good at letting little kids down. He always said, “I have a really big SHOE for you tonight!” But he never showed his feet! I thought maybe he had taken off his shoes and socks and was responsible for the “Bigfoot” footprints that were being reported all over the planet.

Ed redeemed himself when I was in high school. To the frustration of my high school administrators, Ed brought “The Beatles” into our world. My former teachers still hadn’t recovered from Elvis bringing shaky legs into the world of teen television. But at least Elvis pushed his hair back! The BEATLES didn’t! They told us: “If your hair is on your boy’s neck or forehead, you will be expelled!”

How do television and the times change?

God and his tele-evangelists still rule the airwaves, reaching out to those with “Ears to Hear.”

“The earth is the Lord’s and its fullness.”

I love you 🙂

Rascal Russ :))