Sawmill Towns Bates & Izee – TV Stars Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Michael Jorden, Ed Sullivan, Bigfoot
They exist only in the memories of the lucky few survivors of the faraway lumber towns of Bates and Izee, Oregon.
I am, by “The Grace of God” such a survivor, for the time being.
The television (short for Television) was wired from a company-owned tower on a nearby mountaintop. Just one channel, CBS-affiliated KBOI TV in Boise, Idaho, was the only station that had the power to reach the eager eyes of loggers, sawmill workers and their boisterous children.
While the men were still working, the wives cleaning the house or fixing dinner, their otherwise active and skinny children were lying on the floor at 3:00 pm waiting for “Heck Harper and The OK Corell.”
Some lucky kids in town, in Boise, would be on TV, in the broadcast studio, with Heck himself, and they could show their smiling faces to everyone and even say their names. Yes, they would be stars, just like the “Queen for a Day” crybaby their mothers had watched while their normally rowdy children were at school. Well, the kids didn’t win washers, but we knew they were all winners.
Those kids from Boise, they had “The Limelight” their “Day In The Sun” and “Wow, were we ever jealous or what? We all wanted to be BIG TV STARS” but “No Such Luck” We, Sawmill kids, we were lucky if we had a television.
So, like “The Starving Children in China”, we wait. Just a “Sugar Pops” and maybe a wholesome “CoCo Puffs” or “Sugar Jets” commercial, and then the “Autry-Roger’s Ranch” segment of “The Heck Harper Show” would capture our “open” minds.
Like “Toddlers In Toyland” they would teach us morals. Our values be formed by “Royal Singing Cowboys” whose lives and clean music reflected the splendor of the “Hero”, the boots and spurs that we so longed for.
Poor kids today are stuck with “Tennis Shoe Sports Stars” and “Waco Rappers” whose music reflects the harsh reality of “The Ghettos From Where They Came.” Michael Jorden is “An Aging Earth Angel” sent from heaven, but I doubt many of the others are. “Heroes” should be “good” at more than just “hoops.” Money is “poor perfume” for those who “are perishing.” Boys “kill” for tennis shoes and “knock each other up” for warm-up jackets.
Television has changed, along with us “SawMill Kids”, as we have aged.
I remember my first big disappointment in tevevision. Ed Sullivan said that he would “be right back with Micky Mantal”. When, after the Areowax commercial, Ed came back, he asked who Micky’s favorite baseball player was. He expected his guest to be Micky Mouse.
Ed Sullivan was good at disappointing little kids. He always said, “I’ve got a really big SHOE for you tonight!” But he never showed his feet! I thought that maybe he had taken off his shoes and socks and was responsible for the “Bigfoot” tracks that were being reported all over the planet.
Ed redeemed himself when I was in high school. To the frustration of my high school administrators, Ed brought “The Beatles” into our world. My old teachers still hadn’t gotten over Elvis bringing wobbly legs into the world of teen television. But at least Elvis got his hair back! The BEATLES didn’t do it! They told us: “If your hair is on your neck, or on your boy’s forehead, you will be expelled!”
How do television and times change?
God and his televangelists still rule the airwaves, reaching those with “ears to hear.”
“The earth and its fullness belong to the Lord.”
I love you 🙂
Rascal Russ :))