Reagan’s Ramblings: 4,5,9 and 13….

I had the *****TV remote the other day flipping though the channel guide looking for something to watch. After a couple of times through I grumbled unable to find something to land on.

So, I brought up the DVR screen and scrolled down the list of the movies and series I had available. Still nothing from a boat load full of options. Should I put in a bluray or perhaps flip on the radio? Maybe I should grab my ipod and play some music or watch/listen to one of my tech shows I had downloaded.

It was at this point that I realized how spoiled I had become . I then, for some reason, thought back to my days growing up in Oklahoma City. I never seemed to be bored. If I couldn’t be entertained I could always go outside and hit rocks with my baseball bat. If outside was no go I would bounce a rubber ball off the wall (Mom loved that) or even thought up basketball and hockey games that I could play by myself in our garage.

Those days were in the 60’s when TV and radio were still a little bit of luxury around our house.

Radio was always a main option for me (obviously). Before FM opened up some choices there were two top 40’s stations I listened to. WKY (my primary) and KOMA (my secondary). KTOK was talk only heard when Dad switched over to listen to Paul Harvey. Plenty good there, though.

Television was Spartan back in those days. NBC-4, ABC-5, and CBS-9 were the choices. Educational Telvision-13 was just that. Classroom stuff like someone drawing or formulating math problems on a chalkboard. Not so good on the choices. But, some of the best TV ever aired came across our old black and white set in the 60’s. At lease it was memorable. My family didn’t get a color set until 1968 when I was 12. Boy was that a big day for the kid that would study the TV Guide like it was a text book the night before a test.

My parents had a record player. I had some comedy records. But, my parents Hank Williams and Tom Jones grew old in a hurry.

Sports was a one game of the week thing on TV back then. In baseball NBC’s game was on Saturday. Before that, The New York Yankees were carried in OKC. It was in the lean years of the Bronx Bombers. But, listening to Dizzy Dean and Peewee Reese made up for watching the likes of Tom Trash uh Tresh.

College football was also once a week deal on ABC with Chris Shenkel and Bud (Wilkinson). I would be lucky to see one OU game during the season and maybe a bowl game. The rest of the Sooners football came from the radio broadcast with Bob Barry and Jack Ogle. I also listened to the OU basketball games during some really lean years.

NFL games (Frank Gifford with pre game and Ray Scott (Green Bay supporter notwithstanding) were my favorite announcers on CBS with NBC (Curt Gowdy and Al DeRogatis) carrying the AFL. I was old guard NFL all the way. ABC handled the NBA on Sunday afternoons with Schenkel and Bob Cousy.

The radio was where I got most of my sports. Oklahoma City 89er (Larry Calton) or Blazers games (John Brooks, of course) were my favorites If nothing was going on with them I could usually strain to listen to an AM radio and find games from Kansas City, Houston, St. Louis, Minnesota and Chicago (once in a while). The sounds of Harry Caray,Gene Elson, Dan Kelly and others could be heard for few minutes and then fade away into static.

Don’t get me wrong it’s better now.I can watch up to six baseball games at a time and listen to any of the major league teams. My hometown unbelievably has an NBA team and there are several TV networks that do nothing but sports.

The problem is I don’t appreciate how good I’ve got it now. The thrill of snagging a far off a radio sports broadcast,sitting down on Saturday afternoon to watch the only game that week is gone or waiting all week to watch “Laugh In” on Monday night is gone.

I guess I could always drag out my entire series of M*A*S*H on DVD and watch the “Goodbye Radar” episode.