Old Enough to Forget

As a kid, variety shows were a staple. We had less than a handful of television stations, no one I knew had cablevision, and colour TV was a futuristic concept. Like many families, our main set was a piece of furniture with the television set in the middle of a console. Rabbit ears were always being tweaked, or on occasion being held and grounded by one of us to help bring in a clearer picture. This was a time when there were summer replacement series, when the other hosts and performers went on vacation. My memory is foggy on the finer points on a lot of this, but I have memories of Johnny Cash, Andy Williams and a bear, The Smothers Brothers, my hero Glen Campbell, and of course Sonny & Cher. That show was somehow hilarious and cool at the same time. Seeing Cher on top of a piano singing "I'm a vamp." It was their song "I Got You Babe" that I never got sick of. Something about the oboe part just slays me. Then one day me and my cousins were picking up pop ...