Death of Davy Jones brings back memories of a great time to be a kid

The recent passing of Davy Jones and the coverage of his lead in The Monkees brought back a flood of memories to someone who was a youngster in the late 1960s. After a week of school, homework, chores and play, Saturday morning was incentive enough to get a kid out of bed early.

From Space Ghost and Jonny Quest, to The Banana Splits, HR Puff ’n’ Stuff and the Monkees, it was non-stop fun watching the old Zenith. So many shows and cartoons, it kept you busy until lunch. After chores around the house, it was over to a friend’s house or vice versa.

The toy manufacturers did a great job targeting young boys with everything a kid could want for playing army in the backyard. From the Marx machine guns and cap grenades, to the plastic-bullet-shooting Johnny Eagle M-14 and Johnny Seven all-in-one guns, hours would pass until all the young soldiers lay exhausted on the backyard battlefield.

It was always back to the house for a snack and then on to the next theatre of play. The season of the year usually dictated the play. Baseball, football, basketball, fishing, exploring, shooting bb guns, plinking with sling shots, flying balsa planes, swimming, and the list goes on.

Huffy, Raleigh and Schwinn were at the height of bringing the dragster look to bicycles during that time. I was fortunate enough to own one of Schwinn’s Krate Sting-Ray models, the Lemon Peeler. It was totally slick, as was the rear tire. Sting-Rays by any manufacturer were a springboard for doing wheelies and spinning out. Sissy bars were the rage. Ralph Nader helped bring an end to the era by forcing the removal of the stick shifts on the bikes and narrowing the wide monkey bars that were so cool and once a great place to tote a friend. The good news, the BMX was born.

After dinner, it was handling the final chores of the day and then on to something else. Playing electric football, racing Hot Wheels models, or, if you saved enough for a Revell Pitman Willys or a Monogram Red Baron, gluing it together for display on your dresser.

By now, it was time for milk and cookies and all of Saturday’s events began to take their toll. We slept well. As I reflect back, technology was slowly creeping in on us, but not enough to keep the physical and social (kids actually present) activities from being the reigning champions.

I hope we remember, as I-Pads, cell phones and Wii’s vie to consume our children’s/grandchildren’s time, to foster in them the play we had in our homes and backyards back then. Thank you, Davy Jones, and for all those great memories of a time that may just have been one of the greatest times in kid history.

Richard Lotze, North Lima