The Lady in the Rocking Chair

John Bogle (0:07)

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Scott Philbrook (0:37)

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John Bogle (1:11)

Tonight's episode, The Lady in the Rocking Chair.

Forrest Burgess (1:16)

On November 10th, 1969, Public Television put a new children's show on the air built by educators and a puppeteer named Jim Henson. And within a couple of seasons, it's teaching letters and numbers to millions of preschoolers including me.

If you were four years old in the early 70s, Sesame Street was practically a member of the household, and it was awesome.

Scott Philbrook (1:38)

It was indeed. I was almost going to turn four years old at that time. And I remember sitting down watching it because there was nothing else on like that except for cartoons in the afternoon. So if you remember folks, cartoons came on early in the morning, before school, you could catch a few.

On Saturdays, that was a big day for me because I didn't really watch anything before school. And then in the afternoon, then they would start showing the family oriented shows like Gilligan's Island and Brady Bunch. And that was after school stuff. And some cartoons thrown in there. But yeah, and for a lot of kids, it was the only other kid in the house. Me too, because I was also like yourself and our author here at Only Child. So you have to get inventive to entertain yourself. And I got to say, I was never bored. There's always something to do.

Forrest Burgess (2:28)

I wasn't either. I wasn't either. Being an only child can be a lonely business. And now I have an only child. So I know, but at least I've been there.

Scott Philbrook (2:35)

Well, did he watch Sesame Street?

Forrest Burgess (2:37)

I don't think he did. I feel like now my memory is blurry of him at that age. Yeah, he but we were watching a lot of what would the children's television. God, there was a show he watched, which now I can't remember what it was, but it was not Sesame Street.

Scott Philbrook (2:50)

It's the big ones. Bluey. It's so different now. The show is so different.

Forrest Burgess (2:53)

Yeah, I think he was into Bluey for a few months, something like that.

Scott Philbrook (2:56)

I can't remember.

Forrest Burgess (2:57)

Then graduated to Phineas and Ferb, which we watched religiously. Shout out to Dan Pavenmeyer, by the way, a former guest of our show. Anyway, News Flash folks, I'm Gen X, and I was what they used to call a latchkey kid.

Firstly, I was being raised by a single mother in a town with no extended family and she was working full time. I had a key to the house and when I got home from school, I would let myself in. I would get a snack, watch a little TV. Did I mention I was an only child? So yeah, latchkey kid.

Scott Philbrook (3:23)

Well, myself as well because both my folks worked and so you get home and the deal is I was responsible enough to take care of myself. I didn't burn too many things down and they trusted me. But also it's part of the socialization. So they had my neighbor lady take me in for the afternoon until my folks got home from work. And so that's what the latchkey kid thing is. So you get home and I could entertain myself, watch TV, make myself a snack. But it was more fun to go next door to where my best friends, and by the way, speaking of weird childhood memories, my childhood best friend at that time, and a few years older than me, who I really looked up to, was kind of my mentor. Apparently my neighbor said in that house, I just talked to our wonderful neighbor lady next door. She said, yeah, there was a guy that came here looking for you.

And he said that ye used to live in this house and you guys would hang out before your parents got home. I'm like, yeah.

Forrest Burgess (4:22)

Oh, that's cool.

Scott Philbrook (4:22)

Yeah, and I had not seen him since that time. It was just a weird connection. So this story coming in tonight has a lot of ring to it, like a vibe for me that I can totally feel.