How Old Are We? II

[JimMarn]

We still had a small black and while portable TV when my kids were growing up, so they, at least have a concept of that. As we never have had cable, they also understood about limited channels to watch.

That does bring back the memories. I can remember watching The Howdy Doody Show, and Gumby and Pokey, and the original Mickey Mouse Club.

Yup, along with Kookla, Fran, and Ollie. The only human was Fran. The two puppets were operated by her husband. Captan Kangaroo was one of the Clarabelle the Clowns on The Howdy Doody Show. When the show got popular, he asked for a $5 a week raise and they fired him.

The one I miss most of all, I have some of his shows on DvD, is Ernie Kovacs. Lots of his videos are on youtube.

The two people who portrayed Indians on the Howdy Doody Show got offered an audition in California. They did the live show on Friday, drove out there from New York, auditioned, and got killed in an auto accident on the way back. I remember hearing it was their big break.

 

[Timerover51]

Yup, along with Kookla, Fran, and Ollie. The only human was Fran. The two puppets were operated by her husband. Captan Kangaroo was one of the Clarabelle the Clowns on The Howdy Doody Show. When the show got popular, he asked for a $5 a week raise and they fired him.

My Mother in Law was a friend of Fran Allison. And yes, I enjoyed Kukla, Fran, and Ollie. And growing up near Chicago, Garfield Goose was the one that just about everyone watched. I did find the Clutch Cargo episodes on YouTube.

The one I miss most of all, I have some of his shows on DvD, is Ernie Kovacs. Lots of his videos are on youtube.

Ernie was fantastic in his insanity. I will have to look those up.

The two people who portrayed Indians on the Howdy Doody Show got offered an audition in California. They did the live show on Friday, drove out there from New York, auditioned, and got killed in an auto accident on the way back. I remember hearing it was their big break.

Such is life. The one that I remember the most is "The Day the Music Died", when Buddie Hollie, the Big Bopper, and Richie Valens died in that plane crash.

 

[JimMarn]

I forget the name of the show, but the kid's show in Austin, TX had a regular guy who talked to the kids and introduced the cartoons. The kids would toss a black chalk covered string at a big sheet of paer, amnd the clown character on the show would made a drawing from ity the kid could take home.

Another one had cartoons and the host was a semi-retired stage magician who did card trips, and other small tricks like that fo the kids.

Lets see, Baltimore, MD had an afternoon kids show of a guy and two or three others dressed pirates. Showed mostly popeye cartoons. Some days he had a film montage of old 1950s pirate movies with the other ships attacking his stage area... which was part of a pirate ship. One mast, wheel, forecastle. I remember it could be rocked a bit in 'rough weather'.

 

[ovka]

I forget the name of the show, but the kid's show in Austin, TX had a regular guy who talked to the kids and introduced the cartoons. The kids would toss a black chalk covered string at a big sheet of paer, amnd the clown character on the show would made a drawing from ity the kid could take home.

Sounds like a show called "Mr. Patches" I used to watch in the early seventies when I lived at Scott AFB, IL.

Cheers,

Baron Ovka

 

[Timerover51]

The fact that over 80 per cent are in the 41 to 60 age bracket does not bode well for the long term of Traveller.

 

[aramis]

The fact that over 80 per cent are in the 41 to 60 age bracket does not bode well for the long term of Traveller.

The Google Plus and Facebook groups have a younger demographic. BBSs ingeneral tend to be a slightly older demographic, and more prose-oriented.

As of last school year, Anchorage had at least one Traveller game in the high schools. It had two or three i know of in the 80's. Gaming overall is just as strong in each of the Anchorage high schools as in the 1980's... with two more general ed, and 3 specialized curriculum high schools than the 80's. And less stigma for playing.

 

[flykiller]

at least one Traveller game in the high schools.

given the vast range of what is called "traveler" _here_, what is meant by "traveller" there?

 

[aramis]

given the vast range of what is called "traveler" _here_, what is meant by "traveller" there?

I know for certain T20 THB was in use at Dimond HS, I know some kids at Service were looking at running Mongoose.

 

[BlackBat242]

Such is life. The one that I remember the most is "The Day the Music Died", when Buddie Hollie, the Big Bopper, and Richie Valens died in that plane crash.

Tommy Allsup (Buddy Holly's lead guitarist) and Waylon Jennings (Buddy Holly's bass guitarist) were supposed to be in the plane with Buddy Holly, but Tommy and Richie Valens (Ricardo Valenzuela) flipped a coin for one seat and Tommy "lost".

The Big Bopper (J.P. Richardson) was sick with the flu, so Waylon Jennings, being a nice guy, let him have his seat*.

Tommy Allsup is still alive, and Ol' Waylon was inducted into the Eternal Music Hall of Fame on 13 February 2003.



* A Long Time Ago (Waylon Jennings):

Don't ask me about the years I spent out in the rain,
About the ones I spent in love or the ones I spent insane.
Don't ask me who I gave my seat to on that plane.
I think you already know. I told you that a long time ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfOu8i7wsiE

 

[nats]

A bit of a sad poll this one, shows practically all of us are playing after having owned or played the original Classic Traveller in the 70s/80s - there are practically no new players around! Can't be right can it? Surely Mongoose Traveller must have had some impact. Although one bloke working in the Hull RPG shop didnt even know what Traveller was! How sad is that!

 

[aramis]

A bit of a sad poll this one, shows practically all of us are playing after having owned or played the original Classic Traveller in the 70s/80s - there are practically no new players around! Can't be right can it? Surely Mongoose Traveller must have had some impact. Although one bloke working in the Hull RPG shop didnt even know what Traveller was! How sad is that!

Most of the Mongoose players do their chatting on the Mongoose boards, rather than here. Likewise, the GURPS-ies tend to gather on the SJG boards.

 

[Xenon]

i prefer the mongoose edition myself, but i also have gurps and T4. i dont actually have any of the classic books. most of my earlier experience with traveller was from the gurps books, and i do enjoy using far trader and starports for reference books as those have some useful levels of detail. but the system is too much of a pain to actually run for traveller.

the mongoose boards are a bit of a mess compared to here, which is unfortunate. possibly a better spot of version-specific rule discussion, but this is a better traveller forum overall i think.

 

[Timerover51]

i prefer the mongoose edition myself, but i also have gurps and T4. i dont actually have any of the classic books. most of my earlier experience with traveller was from the gurps books, and i do enjoy using far trader and starports for reference books as those have some useful levels of detail. but the system is too much of a pain to actually run for traveller.

the mongoose boards are a bit of a mess compared to here, which is unfortunate. possibly a better spot of version-specific rule discussion, but this is a better traveller forum overall i think.

Somewhere in my garage I have my 1977 edition set of the LBBs with my game design class stuff, and I have the 1981 edition in both hard copy and digital. I also have all of the other editions except 2300AD and the GURPS version. I do have the Mongoose version as well, courtesy of Attack Squadron: Roswell by Zoser Games. I liked that scenario so much I had to buy Mongoose to use it. (Unsolicited plug for Mithras and Zozer Games.)

My first book on wargaming was Don Featherstone's Tank Battles in Miniature: The Western Desert, which I managed to get Don to autograph. That was back in 1970, when I also bought the original edition of PanzerBlitz, which I still have, and the Sea Power II set of WW2 naval miniature gaming rules. I still have those as well, along with my set of the Little Tan Books for D&D. I have never really found a good AD&D forum.

 

[warwizard]

yeah, I was in the same dorm as Steven V Cole, he of later space fleet battles fame, Bought 3 sets of panzer blitz so I could field divisions, got a lot of hand drawn counters from Steven for Jap, British and American forces, and had a 4 ft by 3 ft hand drawn map Steve made and played massive battles, mostly used the American trucks to fill out the TO&E for the Russian infantry corp. Played an operation Barbarosa scenario Russian infantry corps moving along three roads back to more defensible terrain, gets overrun by a German Panzer division, yep it was bloody and pretty one sided, one of the Russian divisions had 2 trucks and a 82mm mortar surviving, the 2nd was at about a battalion worth with about 12 or so units surviving, and the third was regimental in strength with about 45 units for a total of about 60 units out of perhaps 450 deployed by the corps. German losses were about 30% mostly in infantry and their transports. Fun times and it really gave a feel for what happened to the Russian army.

 

[Dolphin in a Robot Suit]

29 here, been playing off and on since early high school.

Not too shocked about the results, Traveller players have always seemed like a salty old lot to me Back when I picked up those Little Black Books for the first time, the only dudes at the game shop who even knew about it were guys who had been playing it since the '70s. I think Mongoose skews younger, though, thanks to the recency of its publication.

 

[Meteoric Assault]

well at least you're not asking how much we weigh ....

:rofl:; yeah lets avoid that. However Aramis has met me in person.

45 years....I would like to ask for an exception for all the jumping out of planes, and solo parenting has aged me significantly.

 

[aramis]

:rofl:; yeah lets avoid that. However Aramis has met me in person.

45 years....I would like to ask for an exception for all the jumping out of planes, and solo parenting has aged me significantly.

Yep. Children have that effect. Yours are charmingly well behaved in public.

 

[Meteoric Assault]

Yep. Children have that effect. Yours are charmingly well behaved in public.

Yours was very sweet and patient with my youngest.

 

[Celestial]

Just turned 40 years old last week. Meh.

 

[baktegon]

i'm 27 and have been refereeing a game of six guys for the last six months, my first time.

Traveller is great! we're playing a T20 campaign (The Linkworlds Cluster) with the Mongoose 2E rules. The crew has a far trader and they're enjoying jumping around the cluster. We have an Ursa, a Vargr, a robot, and three humans.