Do you remeber Saturday mornings in the 60's?

All week long my mother would struggle to get me out of bed, fed, dressed and ready for school. But Saturdays....I would sneak out into the living room around 4am, there was no alarm clock, it was the internal clock most kids had in the 1960s, and it only worked one day a week, Saturdays.

Luckily the Volume dial back then was part of the power switch, so when you turned it on, you made sure not to wake anyone up. The television would warm to life, there was no "instant on", these were vacuum tube days, the picture tube slowly got brighter and sharper until you had the entire screen covered with what today they refer to as white noise, we called it static. You would sneak out to the kitchen, grab something to drink, maybe something to snack on, come back in and lie on the floor, staring at the TV and waiting.

You could just barely make out the Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh audio signal, then all of a sudden, around 4:30am...

The test pattern would flip on, and the shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh would be replaced by a piercing Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. 

About 4:15 the American Flag would fill the screen, blowing in the wind as the Star Spangled banner played.

 OOPS SORRY

The Television day had begun, you were ready for cartoons, but...it wasn't quite that time yet was it, first...

That's right, the Farm Reports, letting you know what was new in the industry, it was cool though, you got to see conveyors, tractors, egg handling, milking machines and all types of cool stuff.

At 5am you were ready for real television, cartoons !!!

But first..

Yes, it's the Jack Lalane Show

Then and only then did television for children start, Deputy Dawg and Musky, Touche Turtle, Huckleberry Hound, Mighty Mouse, Courageous Cat and Mini Mouse, Top Cat...etc...

Warner Bros, was later in the Day...Yeah Bugs and his crew were sort of the main attraction. 

In the Afternoon, B movies, War, Westerns, Horror, Sci Fi, and of course the Creature Double Feature. Life was great as a kid....

As for Color, that was a Magic thing, and for years it only happened at my Grandmothers...on Tuesday Nights.

Prop up on a pillow on the floor and get lost in the Television Color World.

NBC in LIVING COLOR

We had the NBC Peacock at home also, but...for some reason...it just wasn't the same...