OZZIE AND HARRIET

There wasn't much tv venue aboard the Brilliance of the Sea on our recent Caribbean cruise. Did you know the Caribbean was named after an Indian tribe known as the Caribs? Me neither, and I don't know exactly where they settled, but after Columbus named the Caymans after turtles, the Caribs corrected him and named them after the iguanas that frequent there. But they thought the iguanas were crocodiles or in that family, thus the Caymans. Misnomers all around.

But back to The Nelsons. They were a little before my time. Of course, I knew Ricky by Traveling Man, Teen Idol, and Garden Party. along with a few others. But as for the family, I don't know that I ever watched their tv show. Re-runs allowed me to watch an old fashioned sit com. Hokey? You bet. Dated? Undoubtedly. Enjoyable? Yeah.

It was so good to watch a show free from sexual innuendo. They had a canned laugh track, and it was cued for stuff not very funny. But I didn't have to be embarrassed about the content. In one episode, Ozzie and Ricky were playing in the father/son ping pong tournament at the YMCA. Their main competition was next door neighbor Thorny and, as it turned out, his father. His father rather than his son was playing because Oz had loaned his neighbor's son money to go to a dance, thus increasing his odds at winning.

Oz and Ricky won, but received a miniature trophy, while Thorny and his dad received a huge trophy for finishing second. Thorny explained, "Winning the tournament should have been reward enough, but the second place finishers needed encouragement."

It seems that Thorny was the chairman of the trophy committee. Not great humor, but for the 1950's, it was pretty good. I miss that kind of humor that once was Americana.

Maybe I'll have to take another cruise, just to enjoy good, clean fun. Even if it was sugar-coated.