Finally – Saturday morning! My parents are sleeping in a
bit for the first time of the week before they go to the “food
store.” As my sister and I vie for the rights to the newly purchased black
and white Philco TV, I realize it is before 8 am and the test pattern is still
on from when the only station available (our NBC affiliate) went off the air at
10 PM the night before. If my sister opts to start the day with a bowl of
Cheerios in the kitchen, then I settle in to watch Covered Wagon Theatre
while I drink Ovaltine from my “Ranger Joe Mug.” This is an hour
long and shows short films or episodes with B-actor movie cowboys as the heroes
and villains. Bob Steele was my favorite. One week, he’s dressed in white as the
hero and the next week he’s wearing black and being the villain. Invariably the
‘bad guy’ robs a stagecoach and the ‘good guy’ tracks him down. If I continue to
get my way with the TV, I watch The Lone Ranger starring Clayton Moore
and Jay Silverheels next. The Lone Ranger and Tonto invariably get the best of
the Cavendish Gang and at the end of the half-hour I understand a little bit
better how the ‘Wild West’ became civilized.

This Saturday morning turns
out to be one of those dream Saturdays when my sister has something else to do
and the TV is mine until my parents get back from the store. I settle in with my
Frosted Flakes in my matching “Ranger Joe Bowl” to the mug and I am
set for the morning. To continue the theme of the “Old West,” I next watch
Rin-Tin-Tin. That dog’s special and was an indispensable non-com of the
101^st Calvary troop. At this point of the morning, my social
consciousness starts to be raised. Lassie is on next. Timmy and Lassie
always solve a problem or help someone out of trouble. That dog is amazing, too.
(I swear I remember that dog being able to understand commands in foreign
languages as well as all the other things the dog could do
intuitively.)

It is now 10:30 am. My parents will be back around 11. Just
in time, Fury is coming onto the screen. The show is about a black
stallion named Fury who is befriended by Joey, an orphan who had been adopted by
a policeman (Peter Graves, later of Mission Impossible and also brother
of James Arness of Gunsmoke) who had a ranch. Joey, Fury and Joey’s
friend Packy would usually encounter a social issue each week that they worked
through with help from Jim Newton (Peter Graves). I remember one representative
episode especially. Joey and Packy had befriended these two twin boys around the
end of the year–holiday time. The twins’ family didn’t have a lot of money so
it turns out that each holiday, the twins have this one rusty jackknife that
they gift to one another every other year while the other brother gets nothing.
When Joey and Packy find this out, they go back to Mr. Newton and tell him the
story. Mr. Newton helps Joey and Packy to decide that they will take many of
their holiday presents to the boys and celebrate gift-giving with them. The
twins are grateful and the parents are heartened by the generosity of these
boys. There was a certain amount of truth to that episode.

Even though
the morning started out in a daring, “shoot ’em up” fashion, it
ended with a truthful thud to an eight-year-old kid from south central
Pennsylvania. From Bob Steele to Fury, there was an affecting
pattern to the morning. Parables were being presented, stories were being told,
lessons were being learned – all brought to you by the kind folks at Ovaltine,
Kellogg’s, Mattel and Ideal.

Do you have memories like this? What
were your favorites? Let
us know!