Spin and Marty

[Click on the title to go to the website for Spin and Marty].

Alan and I love to watch Gunsmoke. The other day one of the actors on the program was Spin of Spin and Marty fame. Spin was a heart-throb of mine back in the 50s, not that I'd ever met him or ever had any hope of meeting him. Just a dream, you might say. Spin and Marty was a series on The Mickey Mouse Club (the original one with Annette and Bobby, etc.).

Spin, the boy on the left in the picture, and Marty were two kids who had the pleasure of spending the summer together at a dude ranch. Marty was wealthy and even brought his butler along with him. Spin was from the wrong side of the tracks. The story is basically about how these two boys from different ends of the social stratum got to know each other and actually learn to like each other. I guess you had to be there. It was a good, clean series.

Anyway, I mentioned that the character on Gunsmoke was Spin -- and Alan asked me what a spin was. I tried to explain, but because he didn't see a TV until 1959 and Spin and Marty had ridden off into the sunset, he never had the pleasure of watching the series.

I bring this up because I was thinking about the TV actors (teenage boys) I loved to watch when I was a teenage myself. I even carried their pictures in my wallet (remember I wrote about that some weeks ago).

Alan also likes to watch Leave it to Beaver, not a program I like to watch, but I sure did back when I was 14. Beaver's brother, Wally, was what we called "a hunk". He didn't age well, though.

Another one of these "hunky" teens was the brother in a series with Donna Reed called, if you can believe it, The Donna Reed Show. The son in that show was a double for a local young man I enjoyed being around, but who didn't necessarily enjoy my company. Actually, we did go out a couple of times, and skated together at the Christian skating parties a lot. Paul Peterson played the son, Jeff, and he actually did age quite well.

I know this is a silly post, but then silliness was the norm when I was growing up. And I bring this up because the other night we were watching Survivor and my daughter was appalled at the lack of dress of the young ladies on the series. Since I have been dumbed down enough by the previous weeks' viewings I didn't even think about it. In the 50s women/girls would never be seen in a two piece bathing suit, let along the almost string bikinis the ladies on Survivor were wearing. Modesty ruled the viewing. No bad language was permitted and God could only be used if someone were quoting scripture, not as in "Oh my....." (which I find very, very offensive).

It's amazing to me to see how in my lifetime TV has degenerated to a place where I am not offended -- as I should be -- by what I'm viewing. I'm glad my daughter's spiritual sense was tuned into what I should have seen for myself.