Those Thrilling Days of Yesteryear

I follow a blog by a guy named Mark Evanier. He writes about movies, comics, TV, Broadway, cartoons and a bunch of other stuff. Mark has been a professional writer for many years. He's written for television and comics. I think I may have mentioned here that I like comics. Anyway, I can't remember how I stumbled upon his blog but I think it was a good find.

You see, the thing is, this guy Evanier is the same age as me. Actually, I think I have a couple of months on him. So, we grew up during the same times. Apparently, we watched the same television shows, went to the same movies on Saturday afternoons and, oh yeah, read the same comics. The only difference is, he grew up on the west coast and I grew up on the east coast.

It is pretty interesting reading his stuff. He writes a lot about the old stars of television like Milton Berle, Phil Silvers, Sid Caesar and a lot about obscure acts like comedian/songwriter Alan Sherman or that guy that would spin plates on The Ed Sullivan Show.

Like I say, being the same age he brings up a lot of the same stuff I remember. He talks about toys he had as a kid and I had some of that same junk. He writes about watching The 3 Stooges, Laurel & Hardy, Abbott & Costello and, yeah, I was watching the same stuff. A favorite TV show of his was The Dick Van Dyke Show, I watched it. He gets into the old Broadway musicals and I remember my mother had some of those soundtracks on vinyl. I listened to those things, not that there's anything wrong with that. He happens to be a huge fan of the movie It's A Mad, Mad, Mad World for some reason. I saw it and it was funny. I wouldn't go out of my way to see any chance I had, but apparently this guy Mark would.

Anyway, I like reading his stuff. You might say there is some sort of connection, same age, some of the same tastes, similar experiences, I told you about comics, right? It's kind of funny, all this shared stuff and we were a whole continent apart. Do you think the country was more of a community years ago? Kids who grew up in the fifties and sixties didn't have too many channels to choose from on the big console TV. Chances are a lot of people were watching the same thing. That doesn't happen much anymore. I wonder if that kind of thing has created more of a fragmented country. We'll see what memories folks will be blogging about in another thirty years.

However, if you came from the early fifties and were into the pop culture of the sixties, you might want to check out Mark Evanier's blog. He calls it News From Me. Here's a link NewsFromMe. Enjoy.