Another Perfectly Boring Saturday Evening

Good Saturday evening everyone.  I have so much news, but I will go into all that in another post.  Tonight, after a perfectly wonderful week welcoming a perfectly wonderful new granddaughter, we are home enjoying what some might consider a boring Saturday night.  We are watching The Lawrence Welk Show.  Yes, that shows our age. 


I have written about my memories of this show before.  For many years I didn't have warm memories of this show and never wanted to watch it again.  Mom and Dad would grocery stop on Saturday nights and often (even most of the time) we kids would stay with Grandma and Grandpa Dawkins.  I am sure Mom and Dad wanted (needed) a night out without five children.  Now I loved my grandparents dearly, two of my favorite people in the whole world, but I had visions of my parents  going to Hamburger King and staying home meant I wasn't getting to eat out, too.  If you know me, then you know my love of hamburgers.


But tonight, I am watching the show with a different perspective.  Back when the Welk show was on in prime time it was definitely a gentler time.  It was a beautiful show in every way.  The music was always light and uplifting.  No rap with bad lyrics, nobody was scantily dressed and there was nothing for which you had to send your children to the other room.  The clothes worn on the show were just stunning; the colors -- bright and cheerful.  The entertainers, whether dancers, singers, or musicians, were always dressed to the hilt.  Their hair was coiffed in elaborate styles, but very becoming.  Nobody looked or acted like they were drunk or stoned.  It was a very pretty show.


Tonight when the camera scanned the audience, I really get nostalgic for those people.....for those are the people of my past.  I see my aunts and uncles, my grandparents.  I see the clothes they wore.  I see my grandmothers' eyeglasses.  The hairdos were much as I remember in the late 60s and 70s.  Yes, those people are my relatives............ 


What tugs at my hearts, though, are the smiles.  The smiles of the people watching a totally entertaining show; the smiles of the audience who are dressed in their own personal finest.  There was not one bit of worry when they left the house that they would encounter language inappropriate for their youngest grandchild or their 90 year-old mother.  These days you cannot even take you grandchild to Target without worry that they will hear several inappropriate words even from children in the toy aisle. 


So..........we are enjoying another perfectly boring Saturday evening.


I love you.


Next week, expect to be bombed with baby pictures.