However, this crisp, cold Spring air has cleared my head, it was revealed to me this morning, the problem we are having in this country. Jack Armstrong is gone. Every afternoon at four, I would turn on the radio and listen to Jack Armstrong, the All American boy. Together, we would "raise the flag for Hudson High." Then I would spend some time, with Jack, in his world for fifteen minutes. Jack was an athlete at old Hudson High School, and often got involved in an adventure with his friend Billy Fairfield, and Billy's sister Betty, and their uncle Jim Fairfield.
Uncle Jim would have to visit an exotic part of the world in connection with his business, and he would take Jack Armstrong and the Fairfield siblings along with him. I lived those adventures with them. "All American" became very special for me, and the sponsor of the show, Wheaties, were a must on my breakfast table.
Good and bad was always the theme, i learned about good and bad and right and wrong. Often some of the ads would be about famous athletes and we would actually hear them extolling the virtues of Wheaties. To this day I buy a box once in a while, and think of Jack and Billy and Betty and Uncle Jim. I must admit too that I still listen to some of the old shows I can find on the internet. I can put the headphones on, listen to Jack, and be transported back in time.
Jack taught me right from wrong, good from bad, and we all wanted to be like Jack. Kids don't get that today. I spent at lease an hour or so, every weekday listening to Jack, Terry and the Pirates, Captain Midnight and others, all who drew that line between right and wrong, I lived their adventures, I created scenarios in my mind. I decoded messages with my Captain Midnight Decoder Badge.
The main thing, I had to use my "imagination," and kids are missing out on that these days, they "see" it all, not imagine it.
I loved those "sick" days, when I could convince my Dad, the Doctor, that "I didn't feel well. Mom would bring up that bed tray, I don't even see those anymore, other than in old movies, get comfortable under the covers, turn the radio on and listen to Stella Dallas and Ma Perkins and all of the other "soaps."
Start with The Breakfast Club, with Don McNeil, from Chicago, a great show, news from WLW in Cincinnati with Peter Grant, Ruth Lyons from Cincinnati also, then the afternoon soaps. My imagination was working the whole day.
But, the old Philco radio has been replaced with the laptop and these other tablets, etc., whatever they are, no imagination used, just images viewed.
We need to listen to Jack Armstrong again, I think we would have less problems, he was The All American Boy.
More OTR
