With snow and ice covering the ground and making it a slippery and dangerous adventure to be outside, some of my acquaintance turn to winter hobbies to pass the time.
They knit and crochet, tat and make amazing petit point pictures, produce artistic quilts and runners, show off interesting scrap booking products, spend time on internet tutorials, paint, sew, and so many other interesting and time-passing pursuits.
I haven’t been able to master a single one of the hobbies and crafts listed so that leaves me with reading, writing, television or a bit of committee work.
I’m pretty much up to date on the Tom Clancy and James Patterson books and now I’ve discovered the Beverly Lewis books about the beliefs and lives of the Amish.
Writing is done on a regular basis and fills some time on the clock. A meeting or two a month gets me out of the house for a couple of hours at a time.
So, by my calculations, I have some time available in which to turn my attention to the television set as the new season starts for our favourite shows.
But wait: because of writers’ and actors’ strikes, there are few new shows to watch right now and that will likely continue into the new year.
But a friend told Housemate about a new channel he had recently discovered as part of a free tryout, Channel 237 of RFD TV. He came home one morning after his twice-weekly coffee meeting to explain in detail all the shows available to us on that channel. He exclaimed about the country and western music shows, the agricultural stories, the cowboy action and other programs of interest to anyone connected with rural life.
One afternoon while waiting for the clothes dryer to shut off, I sat down to watch this new channel. Ferlin Husky was much younger in the show that afternoon. One of his guests was Mel Tillis, and another was Waylon Jennings, long before he gained his outlaw reputation. There was noting flashy about the shows back in the “olden days” but the tunes were familiar and the words easily understood.
In another show, the performers wore leisure suits with the collars of their shirts folded over the jackets, the rage of the late 1970s. The sexism of the industry was evident in that show: one of the singers was referred to as a “cute little girl.” And another female singer was not included on the credits even though her part in the song was just as important as her male counterpart. No wonder Dolly Parton went out on her own to become more than “a girl singer.”
The polka program was an excellent way to spend a Saturday night, listening to those melodious button accordions, trumpets and saxophones while watching dancers whirl around the floor, doing a variety of polka steps, including some who were having fun while continually being out of step with the music.
Throw in some Calgary Stampede reruns, the action at the Canadian Finals Rodeo from Red Deer and it was a fine weekend spent with Channel 237 RFD TV on our Rogers/Shaw cable system.
Add in Hudson and Rex, Magnum P.I., Heartland, a sanitized version of Yellowstone, Family Feud Canada and Still Standing, plus some curling and the nightly national news broadcasts and my/our TV hours are full.
And despite the ridicule I endure from Housemate and assorted friends, the W Channel has already ventured into some Hallmark Christmas movies and promises a few dozen new ones as Christmas edges closer.
What more could anyone possibly require of the television set?
Joyce Walter can be reached at ronjoy@sasktel.net
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
