1968 – A Few days with Grandma

Lassie TV  Show episode seen at Old 27 [long story]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqkPfHv22Do

I accidentally came upon this by chance. The actual rerun episode I saw in 1968 at Grandma's house, after the  California  Vacation we took. It flipped me out just now finding it. i have not seen this episode since 1968. Made in the 1963-64 season.

 

Backstory is after our trip, Dan and I arranged with all parties so that we could each stay alone up at Grandma's for about 3-4 days by ourselves.  One at a time. This was an event going on while the Hoovers and family were defending our country against the Nazi's in Germany, about 23 years too late,  lol..... staying at Grandmas by yourself with only Grandma, an obvious experiment at independence. 

At times it was quite boring for a kid, but spending time alone in retrospect was a valuable experience, a stepping stone at growing up. Obviously it didn't do me any good.  I'm still 12 years old in the head 😁. I'm sure I read a book and comic books. Joked with grandma. Got into Grandpa's old tools and stuff in the garage, or old stuff in the basement. There was  the old bike with the solid rubber wheels you could rife around in [I believe it was a girl's bike, green and white, belonged to Kathy Mickle. Was left in garage. We had that  bike for a while then returned it to Old  27]. Seems to me Cindy ended up with that bike at one time also. I kept coming back lol.

 

I brought my portable record player, I had just bought  Sergeant  Peppers  album and brought it with me and also played 78's. Play it in the basement...Yodeling Lovely Rita Meter Maid in the  basement 11  times in a row must have driven Grandma nuts. Except her hearing was going... maybe that's what put her over the edge on that and she ended up with a hearing aid.

 

I even saw Paul Noss at the barn, I ran out to the field where he was driving the tractor and he gave me a ride on his way back to the barn. This was in between talking to grandma, a special time for a 12 year old about to go into junior high, or PPP -  "pretend  prison for practice." Sort of a last hurrah of at age 12 childhood before things started to suck because of puberty, except that cute little blond girl I sat next to in 7th grade science class. Her name was Dawn Swan. I told her you don't get a pretty name like that unless you are pretty.  I was smart not to make cracks about being an ugly duckling. hahahhaha. To this day I can't remember what happened to her after 7th grade. She was a very nice kid. "Daaawwwnnnn go away I'm no good for you....."

 

I road the bike over to Dover and visited  Aunt Louise (remember her?) Olive Allen, and probably Dorothy Thompson. I remember them getting a kick out of that. I even road the bike down the gravel on Old 27 all the way to Surrey Rd, about a mile south and thought, nah, better not go into Clare, Grandma will worry and call the parents. Or the police.

 

So late one afternoon around 4pm, I turned on the TV and Timmy and Lassie came on. I watched the episode out of nostalgia as I was a regular viewer of the show 4 years or so before when I was 7 or 8. The episode involved Ruth getting trapped in the truck hanging over a cliff on a bad mountain road. You can fill in the  rest of the story easy I bet. I quit watching  the show when Timmy [John Provost] and  family  left for Australia and they gave the  dog to the Forest Ranger. I tried to watch but it wasn't the same without the  little boy. Sort of a Puff the Magic Dragon story where the boy grows up-it just wasn't the same. But watching this again after 52 years opened up a big memory.