I finished grade
school in 1970. This was back when grade school was kindergarten through
grade six, junior high was grades seven to nine, and high school started your
sophomore year. There was no such thing as middle school.
Finishing grade school in 1970 was a big deal to me. Not
because I had difficulty learning or because I was expected to quit school to
work on the farm. I did not grow up in a rural environment and I am not (emphasis
on not) that old.
Finishing grade school
was special because it meant I could stay up late at night.
Being up late made me feel older, like I was a part of some
secret “what-goes-on-after-nine” club. I was allowed to read, listen to music,
and watch permitted late-evening television.
However, there was a
catch.
I had to have special permission to watch any TV show that was on after
11:00 p.m.
Fast forward another
year or two. I know that the king
of late night television in the 70’s was supposed to be Johnny Carson. But
sometime between 1971 and 1972 I discovered the real Kings of Late Night: Bob “Hoolihan”
Wells and “Big Chuck” Schodowski, hosts of the Hoolihan and Big Chuck Show.
Broadcast out of Cleveland ,
Ohio
The movies themselves were mostly 1940’s – 1960’s theater
and drive-in horror and mystery films. I was a fan of both genres, but my all-time
favorites were the old Sherlock Holmes adventures featuring Basil Rathbone and
Nigel Bruce. I’d read my first Conan Doyle
mystery in the 6th grade, a paperback print of The Hound of the Baskervilles that I ordered from the old Weekly Reader Book Club. When I first
learned of Hoolihan and Big Chuck it was because the TV episode guide for the
week said they were running The Hound.
I had to be up that Friday night! And with my parents’ permission and a bowl of
popcorn, I was.
Back then our family TV’s were usually black and white, a
perfect fit for the Friday night films and the midnight mood. In the years
between that first late night and the day I left for college, I watched quite a
few old flicks – horror, sci-fi, drama and adventure. I think there were even a
few Westerns.
But, of them all, the Holmes mysteries are those I best remember.
I’m in my late fifties now. I’m still a Doyle / Holmes fan. I
own all of the Rathbone and Bruce films. And over the years I’ve received (from
my brothers) complete sets of the Conan Doyle Holmes’ stories. I’ve probably
read them through four or five times.
You’re probably
wondering, “Why?”
When I was a kid, a Sherlock Holmes adventure (book or
movie) was serious business. The stories seemed rooted in real-life
possibilities, but touched with a pinch of the sinister and bizarre. Portrayed
by the author as observant, inquisitive, and logical, the detective was cool
under pressure, undaunted and thorough in his methods, and rarely wrong in his
conclusions. Holmes solved the
mystery! I couldn’t figure it out, but he could. And when Holmes explained it
all as “elementary” I’d smack my forehead in disbelief (figuratively speaking) and
wonder why I didn’t see the answer myself.
Of course, things change as we get older. During my
mid-twenties and thirties my Doyle books were shelved and grew dusty. But in
the early 1990’s I was re-introduced to the mystery genre in a new form: history and archaeology documentaries.
History - as I studied it in secondary school and college -
felt dry and musty. I had little interest. But something clicked when I hit my
late 30’s. Early middle age reminded me that there is much that is unknown about ancient American and European peoples,
places, and events. It hasn’t all been dug up yet, not by a long shot!
So, plain and simple, I became interested in the mystery that
is the past. I know there’s evidence in the ground yet to be found and books on
the shelf waiting to be read. There are things to learn and think about and
understand.
There are still real-life
mysteries out there. We don’t know it all.
I’m glad.
No comments:
Post a Comment