My friend has this morbid thing he does on his web site where he posts pictures of famous people after they have died with X’s on their eyes. (Yes, Danny, it is morbid.) But in some strange way, I think, it’s his way of commemorating folks he likes who have passed on. All political arguments about who is appropriate and inappropriate to appear with X’s on their eyes aside, it’s sometimes a weirdly sweet gesture.
And here is mine, minus the X’s.
When I was a kid my parents were pretty strict about what television shows I could watch. I was the oldest child and they had aspirations of keeping my mind pure. Always safe for my television enjoyment were the shows on Nick at Nite. Now this was before they started showing shows from the 80s on Nick at Nite (what’s up with that???) and nearly every show that was aired was in black and white. My knowledge of old TV is weird for someone my age. I knew who I liked better – Patty or Cathy (Patty, of course, though I knew I was more like Cathy). I wanted a dad like Steve Douglas on My Three Sons – a grandpa like Bub O’Casey, too, for that matter.
My absolute favorite childhood TV show was Get Smart, starring Don Adams as Maxwell Smart, a.k.a., Agent 86, and Barbara Feldon as Agent 99. The show was AWESOME. The man had a shoe phone! (This was long before cell phones so the idea of walking around with a phone was still novel.) Agents 86 and 99 were always tracking down bad guys and dealing with villains. Agent 86 had this special hat he would use when a bad guy gassed his train car (they were on trains a lot). He could pull down the rim of his hat around his neck and it pulled a gas mask down around him. The man was a genius.
Inspector Gadget would have been a more appropriate show for my youth (Don Adams did the voice of Inspector Gadget) but frankly, it wasn’t cool enough. I preferred my shows in black and white, thank you very much.
Don Adams died this past Sunday. To commemorate him, I suggest talking into your shoe at least one time this week.
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