HEY HEY WE'RE THE MONKEES

Man, my wife hates articles like this. You know about the old days. She says she's glad I have a sense for the past, but I'm never sure if she's serious. But I was a history minor in college, so I guess it comes naturally.

When I came acoss this old television channel guide on the Monkees, it brought back a big time memory for me.

When I was growing up, we lived in a real neighborhood with mostly stay at home moms, plus plenty of kids in the neighborhood. One time I counted something like 51 kids who lived within playing distance who played at least some kind of ball with us over the years. Two blocks south, two blocks north, two blocks west and one block east were our boundaries. There were also a few side streets, but you get the idea. Remember, I'm a Baby Boomer, and we had the numbers. We still may be the largest graduating class in MtV's history at 395. Not senior class--this was our 1966 graduating class. Hey, almost time for another reunion. How many? 30? Already? Oh, yeah 40. Wow.

Back to the Monkees. Before Monday Night Football (talk about history) there was The Monkees. And at 7:00 on Monday nights, there would be a big crowd jamming in our living room in front of the only color tv set in the 'hood. Man, that was an honor. And guys and girls would sit in silence and watch Peter and Davey and the other Monkees perform.

They weren't the best. We knew the show wasn't great, but we bonded over The Last Train to Clarksville and Daydream Believer and all the other forgettable Monkee songs. And I'm glad we did. The Monkees made it seem ok just to be average. As long as you were having fun.