TV Timewarp with "Leave It to Beaver"

As I scrolled through my Netflix queue the other day, considering a new TV show to watch, I was reminded of something I hadn't thought about in years: I adore "Leave It to Beaver."

I remember when I was 7 years old, watching the old Nick at Nite line up, before the TV Land channel became a thing. My family would squat in front of the TV every night for "I Dream of Jeannie," "Bewitched," "I Love Lucy," "The Munsters," and "Get Smart," always to switch the OFF button when the theme song for "Dragnet" started. It was like clockwork. Some nights there was Mary, other nights some Dick Van Dyke, but never once was there "Leave It to Beaver." And I figured that was alright, because it seemed like a silly show anyways.

When I was in college, my dad felt it was time I was educated on the ways of the Beav (it shouldn't be a coincidence that he looked eerily like Jerry Mathers in 1959). I was 21 years old, and definitely not a little kid. I hummed and hawed, declaring how uninterested I was, but he popped in his newly received Season 1 DVDs anyways, and the rest was history.

On the surface, "Beaver" looks like a glossy, untainted view of life in the 50's—a mother vacuuming in pearls, a father peering over a newspaper, and a couple of rowdy kids with nothing better to do than get into mischief. The stakes are never too high and no one is ever too unhappy. But as you watch, you realize it's not nostalgic. It's not filmed with any sense of criticism or ironic hind-sight. It's not making an overt comment about progressiveness within a conservative system. It just is. The messages are subtle, but they're effortless.

We see it all as quaint and naive now. That doesn't diminish these truths, though: Wally is the world's best big brother to Beaver. June and Ward Cleaver may just be TV's most sympathetic, understanding, and patient parents. And seeing the show as an adult, I connected with it in a way I wouldn't have as a child. Where once I would have noticed only the trials of boyhood, I now see parents navigating parenthood, ending the cycle of corporal punishment, and the development of brotherhood.

All this rambling is just to say that I want to share my love of this show with you all. Netflix has all six seasons (which originally ran from 1957 to 1963), and I recommend you give it a try, if you haven't already. Watch it with your kids—especially if you have young boys.

Has anyone else watched the entire series? Were you a kid when you watched it, or were you an adult? What are your thoughts?

10 Years

It's hard for me to believe, but this weekend, I will be road tripping from Los Angeles to the San Francisco Bay Area for my (and my twin sister's) 10-year high school reunion. More specifically, for the Castro Valley High School, class of '04, reunion.

There will likely be a celebratory viewing of Romy & Michele's High School Reunion somewhere in there. And rather than strolling through the quad of CVHS, we'll be boozing it up at a brewery in nearby Berkeley. (Whatever happened throwing the party at the school's cafeteria, where you could sneak off and drink in front of your old locker? Was that just in the movies??)

Reunions are an interesting tradition. Especially now, with social media at our fingertips, when we don't need to have a face-to-face reunion to reminisce about the good old days, or find out who has the most successful career, or who looks different and who looks exactly the same.

We already see it all. Every day, when we scroll through our Facebook feeds. We know who has kids, and who recently traveled through Europe; who is on a career path at a major corporation, or who is preparing for their wedding. And honestly, I see and chat with all my good friends regularly, is it really worth a hefty ticket price just to clink wine glasses and say "Welp! It's been 10 years, crazy, huh?"

In short, yes. Yes it is. You only get one 10-year reunion, folks, and while everyone's high school experience is different, mine was one I have no issue celebrating. I'll see people this weekend that I forgot about, and who I didn't realize I missed. And likely, I'll get those "Am I where I expected to be in my life?" feelings that befall us all—and stress about the perfect thing to where, because duh, I wanna look good.

But that, in truth, is just another part of the tradition.

{picture of Castro Valley, CA circa 1970 by Paul MacFarlane via}

The Green Tape

When I was a little girl, my dad would pick Stacy and I up from school every day. Throughout our childhood, he played the music that he loved on the radio and a variety of mixtapes. The tape that saw the most rotation in his old Chevrolet Lumina, however, was the one my sister and I called "The Green Tape."

"Play the green tape, play the green tape!" we'd demand.

We called it that because, you guessed it: it was green. The kind of dingy green cassette you might find in a box in the back of your parents' garage. According to my dad, he got the tape at an old music store in 1990, where they had a giant, klunky machine filled with records that you could use to make your own mixes. The song selections cost about $1/song, and there was a hefty wait time while your creation compiled.

Doo-wop, pop, rock'n'roll, country, and spoken word... this playlist has a huge variety from the 50's and 60's, the decades that most influenced my father. And what came out of that machine became the soundtrack of my childhood.

The tape is now lost to the ages. It may still be in the glove compartment of that beat up Chevy, getting renewed love from a new owner. Back in 2004, Stacy dug around online to find each and every song on the playlist, presenting my dad with the old Green Tape mix, now in the form of the Green CD. Today, the songs reside within my 3rd generation iPod Nano. It evolved with the times while the songs themselves still throw back to the past.

Enough chit chat. Below, please enjoy my very favorite playlist, The Green Tape.

The Green Tape Mix

1. "Hushabye" by The Mystics
2. "Old Rivers" by Walter Brennan
3. "Just a Matter of Time" by Brooke Benton
4. "The Unicorn Song" by The Irish Rovers
5. "Where or When" by Dion and the Belmonts
6. "It's a Lovers Question" by Clyde McPhatter
7. "Where the Boys Are" by Connie Francis
8. "Tragedy" by The Fleetwoods
9. "Sh-Boom (Life Could Be a Dream)" by Crew-Cuts
10. "Only You" by The Platters
11. "My Special Angel" by Bobby Helms
12. "Come and Go With Me" by Dell Vikings
13. "It's All in the Game" by Tommy Edwards
14. "26 Miles" by The Four Preps
15. "Peggy Sue" by Buddy Holly

My family has a running joke that I can't listen to track #2, "Old Rivers," without crying. And they're right! I attribute my lifelong sappiness to the fact that this song played on repeat so frequently during my formative years.

I created a streaming list here to cycle through the entire 'mix tape,' or you can play it below. It is truly one of a kind, and the nostalgia factor is so off the charts, it simply must be shared.



{cassette art via Mollie Bryan} {playlist by Charles Johnstone}