Growing up,one of the best parts of elementary school life was afterschool TV. For a few hours until either Walter Cronkite or Huntley and Brinkley would appear with the news,one could count on afterschool TV capturing my attention from beginning to end. Starting in 1963 when I was in third grade,I'd watch the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite too,but that's another story for another time.
The afterschool TV fun would begin with the Ranger Andy Show. Ranger Andy would bring schoolchildren to his "cabin" to sing songs,play with live animals,and watch cartoons. I was on the Ranger Andy show once and got in trouble with my mom for refusing to do the hokey pokey with the rest of the kids. That too is another story for another time.
Following Ranger Andy came reruns of the Adventures of Superman. I must have seen every episode several times,but I didn't care,I loved Superman ..Faster than a speeding bullet..More powerful than a locomotive...It's a bird,it's a plane. It's Superman!
After Superman,it seemed like reruns of three shows would be rotated. Two were Westerns,Cheyenne and Maverick. As much as I loved Westerns,Cheyenne wasn't one of my favorites. Maverick on the other hand was a favorite. There was a way I identified with the Bret Maverick character played by James Garner. He was one that seemed to use his smarts to escape from situations that in other Westerns would have meant using a gun. Bret Maverick had a brother named Bart. He was more prone to get into trouble. My brother and I would play Maverick.I'd play Bret and Howie would be Bart. The third show was much more modern..Highway Patrol with Broderick Crawford. The common thread with all the programs following Ranger Andy was the good guys vs the bad guys,good triumphing over evil.
A commercial that often ran during those programs had a similar theme. It was a commercial for US Savings Bonds. The commercial featured Russian Premier Nikita Khrushchev. Nikita Khrushchev in these commercials was a menacing figure. He looked mean while giving speeches. Sometimes he would be seen banging his shoe against a desk,and in big letters across the screen,a Khrushchev quote would appear.WE WILL BURY YOU. According to this commercial,the way to defeat Khrushchev and Communism was to buy US Savings Bonds.
Now I was too young to buy US Savings Bonds on my own,and I remembered hearing the names Khrushchev and Communism when we were certain the world was going to blow up over missiles in Cuba so after a period of time of watching these commercials,I had to ask my mom "What is Communism?" I knew my mom would know. My mom,when she wasn't at home was likely at a Board of Education meeting,or at a meeting of the NAACP or Urban League,and if she wasn't at any of those meetings,she probably was organizing for the Democratic Party somewhere.
Mom's answer horrified me. "It's a system of government where the government tells you what you can and cannot do." Mom was telling this to a boy who chafed against parental authority pretty much from the time he was able to and who on a regular basis,challenged and worked at undermining that authority. By the time I was 8,I was already looking forward to the day I wouldn't have to pay such a high penalty for when doing what I wanted to do ran contrary to what my parents wanted. Now my mom was telling me about a government that would try to tell me what to do as an adult?
The Independent Roots run deep...
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