I Remember JFK: A Baby Boomer's Pleasant Reminiscing Spot

The year was 1971. The typical American family was the Brady Bunch. So said one side of Hollywood. I beg to differ, said the other side. The typical American family is going through a divorce, and has a flamboyantly gay son who likes to go drag racing every now and then.

Thus were the American public presented with An American Family, And they were also presented with the birth of reality TV, for better or worse.

I'm not here to sit in judgment of reality TV. An argument could be made that Candid Camera was a prehistoric form of the genre. And I 'm heavily into The Deadliest Catch and Ice Road Truckers, two shows which seem to fit into the mold.

However, much of what constitutes reality TV homes in on the baser segments of human nature, and there are certainly some seriously low spots that can be tapped. An argument could be made that they are simply following the lead provided many years ago by PBS and the Louds.

Television of the 50's tried to shield us from many ugly facts. For example, the very idea that married couples would sleep in the same bed! The horror! And we never, ever saw the Beave or Wally heading for the can.

But thanks to a man named Abraham Katz, the female members of the Boomer generation were a bit more informed. The reason was that way back in 1934, he released to the world the Betsy-Wetsy doll.

Betsy-Wetsy, named after Mr. Katz's daughter, would take water into her mouth from the included baby bottle. And physics being what it is, as well as biology, the water would eventually be expelled from the southern end of said doll.

Thus were our female brethren more educated about the facts of life than we males who watched hour after hour of 50's era sitcoms which carefully hid the fact that people have to occasionally relieve themselves.

Well, at presstime the shortest day of the year is two days away. It's 30 degrees outside, spitting snow. So what better course to take than to reminisce on those happy, carefree days we Boomers used to spend in our summertime back yards? THAT will cure the winter blues!

The beauty of backyard play was that it was, for all practical purposes, free. The playthings might have been toys, or perhaps not. For example, one of my favorite pastimes was to spin around and around until I was terribly dizzy, then laugh hysterically as I tried to walk around without falling. It was just as much fun to watch my friends do the same thing. We would spend HOURS just spinning around and laughing.

I hope that today's youngsters aren't so hooked on computer games that they miss out on the simple pleasure of spinning around until you're too dizzy to stand.

And what greater joy was there than hooking up the sprinkler, putting on a bathing suit, and just running through it, over and over? An additional benefit was that the thirsty lawn would receive a drink in the process. That's what you call a win-win.

In a day and age when many of our favorite childhood toys have ridden off into the sunset, either victims of hard financial times, or perhaps, like Kenner, were bought and sold into total obscurity, it's refreshing to see a treasured childhood memory doing very well, thank you.

Such is the case with today's subject, Lego.

I remember Legos being a hot new item in the 60's. But in researching this piece, I was quite surprised to learn that its history is as venerable as that of Lincoln Logs and Tinkertoys, going all the way back to early in the 20th century.

It all started with a Danish gentleman by the name of Ole Kirk Christiansen. He was in the business of producing buildings and furniture for the locals when, in 1924, his two young sons set a fire while playing with some wood shavings which destroyed Ole's workshop.

Ole took it in stride, and looked at the disaster as an opportunity to build a new workshop with greater capabilities. Thus, he began producing miniaturized versions of his furniture and buildings to be used as aids in designing.