TL;DR - I have now officially hated Nixon for 40 years. Exactly forty years ago today, I watched Nixon resign from the presidency on the little black and white TV in my mom and dads shop in Winter Park. But not willingly. In those days, and especially in the blazing hot Florida summers, the absolute, single highlight of my day - my one escape from the crushing boredom of hanging around in my parents clothing store - the thing I literally looked forward to ALL DAY LONG - was the half-hour rerun of the original Batman TV series (you know, Adam West, wham! pow!) that aired on the UHF station in late afternoon. So that day, the TV was on as always, and Batman-time was drawing near! Hooray! Maybe 15 minutes before Batman started, they cut into whatever meaningless, non-Batman programming was on with Breaking News. I was disconcerted and had no idea what was going on, but mom and dad were transfixed. It kept going, and then Nixon started talking. And talking. And talking. Since Nixon showed no signs of stopping as Batman-time drew nearer and nearer, I was starting to get impatient and concerned. I could see that mom and dad were REALLY INTERESTED in what this guy was saying for some reason. But: Batman. I decided to lay the groundwork for a negotiation. I waited until just a minute or so before Batman-time and I asked as diplomatically as I could, trying to convey with my tone of voice, hey mom and dad, Im a totally empathetic kid. I totally understand this is important to you big people for some reason, but hey, lets all be reasonable people here. Can I change the channel when Batman is on? My Dad snapped, quiet! this is history! I was unmoved. Batman. My Mom snapped, this is on *every* channel. Wait, what? This is on ALL FIVE CHANNELS? (Younger readers: if you werent already sickened by the concept of black and white television, you may now be experiencing uncontrollable waves of nausea, or even dry heaving. Take a break. We understand.) How could this be? I pointed out that this was clearly impossible (because: Batman). In what I now see as an epic feat of parenting, my mom quickly twisted the dial around and around. The scene remains etched in my memory to this day, forty years later. EVERY CHANNEL HAD THE SAME BLACK AND WHITE NIXON FACE. ALL. FiVE. CHANNELS. Nixon: War criminal. Conspirator. And Batman-preempter. Never forget. https://youtube/watch?v=zLHc8NR_v-8
Posted on: Sat, 09 Aug 2014 03:14:17 +0000
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