Whatcha Watchin’ – Page 2 – Charles (Chuck) Kensinger

Sunday night

February 12, 2023

My wife and I are planning to have a nice evening at home tonight. We will prepare cashew chicken, watch television, not football, and not watch a half-time show. As far as I am concerned, there is no football game being aired.

I am not a football fan, as you can tell. Actually, I do not like any sports. I have two older brothers that watched baseball and thought talking about sports was a manly thing to do. I never cared about that, and I dislike all the babble about the stupid bowl that has been going on for two weeks.

They were forced to take me along with them when they went out to play. I was always picked last for any team. That was never an enjoyable time.

My brothers were Cardinal fans. In 1969 I predicted that the New York Mets would win the world series. They told me that I was crazy. I was right. I must admit that I had made that prediction for several years because the Mets were in the basement. I did it just to make them angry.

If you are a football or sports fan, that is all right for you. Don’t expect me to get all warm and fuzzy about grown men playing games and making money doing it. Let’s find common ground between us.

If I had to choose a team to win THE BIG GAME, it would be the Eagles. It is not that I like that team better than the other one. I like eagles. I like all kinds of eagles. I collect them. I have photographs, stuffed toys, figurines, and even paintings of eagles. I just like eagles. Not the Philadelphia Eagles.

What do I do for fun? I am doing it now. I enjoy writing and expressing my creativity in this manner. You may find that to be strange. I am fine with that. Do what you want to do and let me do the same and we will get along fine.

Enjoy the game and the commercials tonight. I hope the team that you support wins even if it is the Chiefs. Don’t forget to enjoy the game day snacks. That is something where my wife and I will join you.

A Smile

December 28, 2022

Ideas may be hard for some of us to come up with. I know that is not proper grammar. Give me a break, please. I am watching a movie on the Hallmark Channel. It gave me an idea for this column.

The name of the show is “A Smile as big as the Moon.” It is taken from a book of the same name by Mike Kersjes. This is not fiction. The book is a memoir because the teacher of a special education class wrote it. It is his story of what happened to them.

The football coach teacher is spurred on by one student who wants to go to Space Camp. He is a Down syndrome student. Many of his classmates have other handicaps or problems with discipline or learning disabilities.

At the time, Space Camp did not have a program for special needs students. The story is about how to convince the administration at the camp to take a chance on children that are not considered even normal. They are usually thought of as difficult to deal with.

Handling problems for these young people is not easy. Frustration, disappointment, and conflict force them to treat each other as friends and equals. One student does not believe his being in this class is fair. He was a normally well-achieving scholar who endured some setbacks in his grades.

Life is not always fair. To make a story work you must have conflicts. Real life makes for some thrilling times even in a movie script or book. This story has protagonists and antagonists. The teacher and the principal have difficulties as do the administration at Space Camp and that same special education teacher.

I have heard of space camp and am glad that they now have programs for all students and adults. I grew up during the race for space and witnessed Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walking on the moon for the first time in 1969. I have always attempted to follow NASA and the others pushing beyond our atmosphere.

My takeaway from this movie is that we should all share a smile with everyone that we meet every day. Kindness has no better technique for being spread than a spontaneous smile.

Quantum Leap is returning

September 24, 2022

I remember the TV show “Quantum Leap.” This science fiction series from 1989 is being reimagined. I saw this week’s episode and enjoyed it. The connection between the original and the current series was established in the first hour. We even had an update on Al, the hologram that followed Sam around.

Sam is still out there somewhere as far as anyone knows. My speculation is that they will be continuing to discuss him. I would not be amazed to watch an episode where they find him and try to rescue him.

For those of you who are not familiar with either “Quantum Leap” series, the premise is that you can time travel within your own lifetime. This is an interpretation of the string theory of time that Sheldon in “Big Bang Theory” talks about. I am not a physicist and I do not play one on television, but I have a slight knowledge gained through other sci-fi stories.

Many writers have asserted that it is impossible to change history. The storylines of these scripts revolve around the changes that must be made in the lives of people around the person that is leaped into. While these are small changes as history is concerned, they are major in the futures of the characters.

Rod Serling, the creator and host of “Twilight Zone,” wrote and produced episodes that dealt with time travel. The “Time Tunnel” was a direct contradiction of string theory in that the main characters were unable to change history and went to times outside of their lifetimes. Many other time travel stories have been very different from these TV shows.

A story that I wrote years ago involves a person who does not change history. He is involved in a circular process where he is also trapped in events that take place in a set period. Someday I will publish this story on my website. I haven’t posted much fiction here to this point. Let me know what you think.

I would like to give you my understanding of time to finish this column. Time is a part of creation. It is not just that God created the universe. He also created time when He made the stars, planets, and moons. Our time is measured by the movement of the sun. Our seasons and months are determined by the movements of the moon and the sun.

When we enter into the presence of the Father, we will no longer have a method of measuring time because it will no longer exist. As long as we are here it is fun to speculate on the possibility of time travel. One more point. We are all time travelers. We are only traveling in one direction. Into the future. We can only travel back through our memories.

Who’s gonna fill my shoes?

August 7, 2022

Have you ever asked yourself this question? I asked myself after I heard the George Jones song “Who’s gonna fill their shoes?” It is about the country singers that my dad liked, and I grew up listening to. Some I only know by the records my father had in his collection. Most of those albums are long gone.

I am not a country music fan. If you know me personally you also know I am not any kind of singer. I like to create through my words in the form of prose and not poetry. My life has been spent in many ways and others have taken my spot in many of these.

Business managers are easily replaced as are purchasing agents and managers. A job can be filled by many when the previous holder moves on. As a teacher in the church, those positions have also been filled. While they may not use the same style of instruction, they have their own and get the job done.

The shoes that I want to talk about are those of husband, father, and grandfather. I have not been perfect. I have done my best and I will never be replaced when I am no longer here to fulfill those responsibilities. Others can try to accomplish the tasks that I have spent time on. It still will not be the same as I would do it.

Those tasks are to educate and inform the ones I care about on how to become a person of integrity, someone who loves them, and their biggest fan. Time is always too short. I would enjoy as much time as possible to continue with these wonderful people. How can I show love and concern to them when I am not with them?

Love is not an emotion as we normally think of it. Love is the actions that we take every day to show that we genuinely appreciate and accept each other. What can we do to continue these acts that are seen as love? Let’s look at how we communicate love.

Letters that encourage are one way. Write them now for the special occasions that will come after you are gone. A letter for each anniversary, birthday, wedding, graduation, and any other special occasion that you can think of. Start as soon as you can. Don’t mention a number except in certain cases.

Purchase and wrap gifts for these events and others like Christmas or a day that you currently celebrate with a gift. The hard part is how to get these into the hands of those you prepare them for. One of the simplest ways is to have your attorney or executor of your will present these for you. Discussing this extra and ongoing part of the job should be accomplished as soon as you can. Choose someone young enough to be around when you need them.

Selecting several individuals to take this task for you is another way to make the job easier. Be sure these are dependable folks. Do not forget to have letters and presents sent to them as well. Time is not the enemy here. It provides the opportunities to continue to be the person that others cherish.

Have you seen my glasses?

July 21, 2022

Have you seen the Dish ad with the couple where he is looking for something and she is using her voice remote to find a movie she wants to watch? He raises up and asks her “Have you seen my glasses? We see his glasses are on the top of his head. She replies, “They’re around somewhere.”

I am going to scream about this degradation of older men. Do you know why the two actors’ roles were not reversed? I believe it is because the advertising agency would have lost much of their business if they were viewed as making fun of a woman.

Another question I have is why isn’t this couple mixed race? That seems to be the way most commercials are cast. Wouldn’t it be just as cute, if it was a white woman that said, “They’re around somewhere.” I’m sure the agency did not want to deal with the fallout from possible racism.

It is acceptable to make fun of men. Color or Race means nothing if the man is considered elderly. The idea of a forgetful old man is always a good laugh. Don’t make fun of a young black man. You’ll be called a bigot.

Another problem with this commercial is that it is making fun of those of us that do not have very good memories. Yes, I am in my sixties, and I have heard the story that when you get older there are three things that happen. The first is you lose your memory and the person telling the joke can’t remember the other two.

To prove my poor memory is not caused by aging, I will tell you the other two. You go to the bathroom a lot more and your breakfast consists of about two dozen pills. My memory started to go when I was in my twenties. When in grade school, high school, and even college I was praised for my ability to memorize scripture, statistics, poetry, speeches, and vocabulary words for four languages.

One of the things you learn when your brain does not recall things as easily as it once did, is to compensate. I began carrying a notebook in my pocket when I was in journalism. I still carry it. Everything I need to remember is in there. Phone numbers, ideas for articles and books, and even things I need to pick up at stores.

I have worn glasses since I was in the third grade. They are always on my face. I now wear a strap on them since I had cataracts removed and the new lens gave me the vision to read clearly. I still need glasses for everything else. They are always on my eyes, my chest, or the nightstand.

While many of you think this commercial is humorous, I hope you understand why it distresses me. One thing I assume is that the woman is his wife. If I am wrong about this and she is his sister, then I understand. So as Rose Ann Rosanna Danna would say, “never mind.”

A fourteen-year-old visits the moon.

July 20, 2022

Fifty-three years ago, my brothers and I were watching television with friends from church on Sunday evening. Our youth minister had planned this activity for us weeks before. My oldest brother was leaving that week for the Navy. This was his going away party.

Saturday, we had been watching as Apollo 11 landed on the moon. The words, “The Eagle has landed” were heard with a slight delay. I listened intently that evening to hear what would happen and when. At church the next morning my question was if there would be a television, we could watch at the home of the family that was hosting the event.

The answer was, of course. We ate, played games, and stayed alert to what was happening on the moon and at mission control in Houston, Texas. A few minutes before the door of the Lunar Excursion Module was opened, we all gathered around the TV.

We waited with Uncle Walter as Armstrong and Aldrin prepared to vacate the LEM. Mike Collins was orbiting the moon in Columbia. Viewers all around the world were watching. This had never happened before.

Apollo 8 with its three-man crew had orbited the moon the previous December. That was a first. There was no LEM on this flight. It wasn’t ready, yet. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth” was heard from the craft on Christmas Eve. Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and William Anders were on board. Borman did the reading. This showed the difference between the Soviets and Americans. We saw God where we were. They never saw Him.

James McDivitt, David Scott, and Rusty Schweickart Flew the Apollo 9 with the first LEM in March of 1969. The docking and undocking of the command and lunar modules were tested. It working as expected. The only problem was that they never left Earth’s orbit. They did test the moon suits during a spacewalk.

In May Apollo 10 went back to the moon. It had a LEM and the lander undocked and went within 8 miles of the surface of the moon. They fired the ascent engine before reaching the point of no return. Tom Stafford and Gene Cernan were onboard the LEM while john Young flew the command module. The two crafts redocked and left lunar orbit to return to the Earth.

As this young man watched on July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin did what had never been done before. They walked on the surface of the moon. A TV camera on the lander showed us as Neil stepped off the ladder and said, “That’s one small step for a man and a giant leap for mankind.”

As we all know all three of the Apollo 11 astronauts returned home from the moon. 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17 Apollo missions also returned to the moon before the end of the moon missions. We all know about the problems on Apollo 13 that prevented them from landing. Some of the astronauts drove golf balls or moon rovers while on the surface.

If you hear that the Apollo 11 landing was a hoax by the government, do not believe it. Not only did U.S. astronauts land on the moon once. They went there nine times and landed six times. A total of twelve Americans walked on the surface.

Take my word for it. I was that fourteen-year-old boy that walked on the moon with all of them through the miracle of live television. I never needed video games in the sixties and seventies because we had the space race. Watching real people explore the unknown in real-time beats any computer simulation.

Can you still kick the can?

July 15, 2022

In 1962 an episode of the Twilight Zone was entitled “Kick the Can”. It is the story of a group of old people who live in what was called a nursing home. Sixty years later we need to look at this story and remember what Rod Serling was trying to tell eight-year-old boys like me.

Charles and Ben have been life-long friends and are now roommates at Sunnyvale. Charles has decided that he is not as old as everyone thinks he is. While watching some kids playing in the street, he begins to believe that he only started to age when he quit playing games like hide and seek and kick the can.ch for kicking the can. It was always a game I played by myself when no one else was around. I preferred to sit under a tree with a book when I could. My first love was Cowboy Sam and as I became able to read more advanced literature I read “Podkayne of Mars” by Robert Heinlein. That was my introduction to Science Fiction.

My dad never allowed me to watch Twilight Zone or other Sci-Fi Shows. I watched them in reruns while in college. My brother bought a TV for our room, and we could watch anything we wanted. The late show was my friend.

Science fiction, including The Twilight Zone, deals with possibilities. That is what Charles was talking about. Is it possible that man’s thinking about aging was wrong? Today we have phrases like, “you’re only as old as you feel,” and “think young, act young, be young.” This episode of the show deals with our constant desire to stay young.

When what is now called America was first discovered by the Europeans, they wondered at the longevity of the natives of certain areas in south and central America. Rumors of a fountain of youth were frequently told. These stories were taken back, and more money was spent for further exploration.

In this story the idea of regaining youth is simple. After being separated from the others because he is called senile, he decides to make a break at night. Some of the others from the home go outside with him. Ben does not want any part of trying to become younger. The end of the show leads us to believe that Charlie was correct in his thinking.

What makes you feel younger? My grandchildren both make me younger and wear me out at the same time. What we eat can help us stay healthy and act younger. Proper exercise and healthy living practices can also extend our years.

The point made by Rod Serling is that we can make our years worse by simply thinking older. Think younger and be younger. Play can help us feel better. Take time for fun.

The Shop Around the Corner

December 16, 2021

The Shop Around the Corner, In the Good Old Summertime, and You’ve Got Mail are three movies that have a great deal in common. Jimmie Stewart and Margaret Sullavan made the 1940 picture The Shop Around the Corner from a script written by Samson Raphaelson.

Judy Garland and Van Johnson reprise the storyline and the characters in the 1949 semi-musical In the Good Old Summertime. The original play was known as Parfumerie written by Miklos Laszlo, a Hungarian American playwright. The third incarnation was She Loves Me, a 1963 Broadway musical.

The storyline is of a man and a woman who have been exchanging letters for some time and have fallen in love. The pair are coworkers in a perfume store and then in a music store. That changes in 1998’s You’ve Got Mail with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. Meg owns The Shop Around the Corner that is a bookstore. Tom Hanks is a CEO of a major chain of bookstores that are moving into the neighborhood.

They are exchanging messages in an AOL chat room. The scene where the couple agrees to meet at a local restaurant is almost identical in all the productions. He looks in and sees that she is a woman that hates him. When he enters and sees her, he doesn’t admit that he is her good friend. He makes fun of the other man. This is the plot in each script.

The unique part of the You’ve Got Mail movie is that the characters Meg and Tom play are involved with someone else and are keeping it a secret from their lovers. Can you be in love with someone you have not yet met? It is an intriguing question.

This was not the first play or movie where two adults who seem to hate each other become lovers. Another series of productions reverse the order. The original was The Front Page from 1931 tells of a newspaper reporter and his editor that have a falling out after being friends for years. That’s the reverse of a couple that hates each other and then falls in love.

What if the reporter is female and the editor is male? They are also a divorced couple. The 1940 movie His Girl Friday starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell was the first incarnation of this twist. Switching Channels from 1988 teams Burt Reynolds with Sharon Stone as a cable news network owner and his top reporter that use the same story. Do you know any other movies or TV shows with the same story? I’d enjoy hearing about them.

Charles (Chuck) Kensinger

Walk With a Servant

Category: Whatcha Watchin’