I Love Lucy, not so sure about everybody else!

With the choice of three channels back in the fifties most of the television sets, with rabbit ears wrapped in “tin foil”, were tuned in on a weekly basis to I Love Lucy. There were other shows that were popular such as Sid Caesars “Your Show of Shows”, William Bendix in “The Life of Riley”, Jackie Gleason, lovable Red Skelton and much censored with “blue” pencil Milton Berle. Out of all those names, depending on your age, you might never have heard of any of the above with the exception of Lucille Ball. “Lucy” who could cry-out-loud at the drop of a hat, always trying to get into the act of her (sometimes) long-suffering husband, band leader, night club performer and would-be actor, “Ricky Ricardo” played by real life husband Desi Arnaz. As a little girl I was so taken with watching television that I would watch the Gillette Friday night boxing, Saturday football games, newscasts and the early morning “snow” and start-up pattern. Not so crazy about Dave Garraway in the beginning years of the “Today” show because that signaled it was almost time to go to school, but couldn’t wait to get home to watch the Mickey Mouse Club, with my favorites “Annette” and “Tim Considine”, and American Bandstand. Again let me ask, how many of those shows do you remember? I would be willing to bet that the majority of you only remember “I Love Lucy”, am I right?

Bear with me please I am coming to my point.

I have seen every Lucy episode many times over and back in the day when I was married to a Latin American man who was new to this country and the English language, I watched it again every night on the Turner Broadcasting Network (channel 17) with fresh eyes because he would laugh so hard as Ricky had tirades of anger telling Lucy off colorfully in Spanish! All that being said, I went through Lucy with my children and grandchildren, until now about the last thing on earth I ever want to watch under any circumstances is I Love Lucy and when I hear the music signaling the upcoming telecast I run as hard as I can to find the remote control (notice I did not say “clicker”?) to change the channel, that is until this morning!

As I was enjoying the first few sips from my big fat, white mug filled with steaming hot, black coffee, I was suddenly, very suddenly, compelled to grab that remote and get the channel changed from the news show I watch in the mornings and hit “last” which took me over to the Hallmark Channel and, you guessed it, I Love Lucy. I was comforted by the fact that it would only be on for fifteen more minutes and then another classic, the Golden Girls, would be coming on. As I watched Lucy try to help out a shy neighbor get a date with the man of her dreams, causing mayhem for herself and Ricky, I took a long breath as if I had been running and needed air, I did need a fresh breath of un-political, unbiased, un-controversial, non-murderous, air.

I read something yesterday (okay some of you are about to delete me from your morning play-list) that I agreed with. It said, “Martha lied and ended up in jail, Hillary lied and got off free.” Has no one besides me watched the video of her asking, “What does it matter how they (concerning Benghazi) died?” The accusations running between her and the other presumed candidate, Donald, are getting a little much for this girl who just wants her country back, the country where kids stood in class with hand over heart and said the Pledge of Allegiance and then quoted the Lord’s Prayer. Don’t come back at me with the prejudice of those days, no one reading this believes in equality more. I lived with the prejudice that having skin color darker than that of my classmates brought. I also believe that if a person comes to this country to make a better life for their family, to have freedom from persecution and accepts money from any of our agencies they should not, with their new-found freedoms, be able to deprive us of our own freedom. Why should I be afraid I am going to offend someone by wearing a flag on my lapel, or raising one in front of my house? These people who hate our flag should not be allowed to come into our country and take benefits from our government. Why should I be afraid or deprived of the right to say a public prayer because I don’t want to offend anyone that believes that God is not the Creator or that Jesus is not the Christ?

But I digress, after watching more poster brandishing people and women talking about how they were asked to show their legs (which I have honestly noticed how they sit with legs crossed, skirts sliding up their thighs) or show their rear-end to the head of the network or be fired, I exercised my right to change the channel.

Face it my friend, if there are two people in a room discussing anything, there are always three opinions (yes I know what I just said), love me anyway and tomorrow morning, just watch I Love Lucy!