I was in sixth grade in the spring of 1975 and television was becoming important. This was when we could only get three channels and everyone was watching the same programs. If you weren’t watching the same programs that everyone else did, you weren’t able to participate in the discussions of the “cool” programs. It …
Author Archives: elvisgumby
Why I don’t like Ventriloquist’s Dummies
The Twilight Zone was in syndication when I was very young. By the time I started watching it, I paid more was old enough to remember episodes of shows. Because it was in syndication, I was likely to see the same episodes over and over even though there was a total of 156 shows. The …
Fear of Sivad
Most of my earliest memories of watch TV relate to being scared. Continuing with my October theme of scary TV shows and movies, I am reminded of a television show called Fantastic Features which aired on WHBQ-TV from Memphis. I was born in 1962 and so was this show. It was a showcase for horror …
Why I Was Scared of Dick Van Dyke
Since its October, I’ve decided to devote some of this month’s posts to things that have really scared me. My first thoughts went to television programs and movies. And I decided to start with one of my earliest memories of something scaring me. And that is Dick Van Dyke. Maybe it’s not him. Doesn’t everyone …
Remembering Mom on Her Birthday
Here are 10 fond memories I have of my mom in honor of her birthday on September 18: She cooked all moisture and most nutrients out of all of the food she cooked. She was my first music teacher. She taught me a little about how to play piano and a lot about how to …
9-11 Memories
I have very vivid memories of the morning of September 11, 2001. I was supposed to fly out of Jackson, Tennessee through St. Louis to Indianapolis that morning. When I got out of the shower, my wife came into our bathroom and told me that she was watching Good Morning America and they had reported a fire …
Watching “This Is Elvis” After Elvis Week 2014
It has been almost two weeks since my latest visit to Graceland and less than a week since I posted the essay for this year’s trip. Earlier this week, I was going through the channel guide on my television and saw that the movie “This is Elvis” was on. This documentary was released in 1981. …
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Elvis Week 2014: Hanging out with Insiders
A few days before my yearly trip to Graceland for the Candlelight Vigil, I ran into a friend who had read some of my posts about visiting Graceland. He told me that he was one of the few people ever kicked out of Graceland. Earlier in his life, he was involved in a comedy club …
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Getting My Driver’s License
Last week, my youngest child got her driver’s license. This is reason enough for me to reflect on the differences in driver’s licenses today at back in 1978 when I got mine. At that time, getting a learner’s permit consisted of filling out forms and paying money. You didn’t have to take any test. The …
A Brief History of Memphis Soul Music
I live in West Tennessee and I also grew up here. Most of the television stations that we watched were from Memphis. The most popular radio stations that we listened to were also from Memphis. I would love to be able to say that I know a lot about Memphis music because I listened to …