northsider

Foaming At The Mouth
Memories Of My Youth

A brief window into my childhood misspent in front of the TV....



The main element here is that it was the daily afternoon broadcast on Channel 32 (WFLD-TV). Little Rascals and Three Stooges every day. It's important that I stress that I was raised on the classics.


As a childhood insomniac who loved old movies, the late late show figured into much of my childhood, too.


For the record, the Sprite Magic Baseball was a cheesy graphic of a baseball with the Sprite logo in the middle. You watched the game, wrote down which inning the baseball came awkwardly bouncing across the bottom of the screen, sent it in on a postcard, and got nothing for your troubles. Well, maybe somebody won something but I sure as hell didn't. Not even a lousy six-pack.


Before they went national and got rich, Siskel and Ebert just had a crappy little show on the local PBS station. Note how the show had clips from the movies they were reviewing, not just debate between the two of them. Even when I was a little kid, this show was must-see viewing in our house.


Zayre! Holy fuck, I had forgotten about that place. They must've gone out of business twenty years ago. Next thing you know, I'll be finding a commercial for Venture.


I swear to God, I wrote that last entry and then five minutes later, guess what I find....


Seriously, that fucker's been around forEVER! Actually, both Empire Guy and Svengoolie have been in Chicago longer than Oprah.

Enough for now. More soon...