Looking Back In Time

We’re now into February, and it’s hard to believe it’s already the fourth day of the month. January lasted about a whole year and I never thought we’d thaw out from that extreme cold. At least I had football to keep me occupied this month.

I don’t find too many interesting pages on Instagram and the algorithm drives me completely insane. But being the TV buff that I am, I discovered a nostalgic page called “Retro Blast From The Past”. It’s mainly reels with this person who tells the viewer what they’d be watching on a given night and network during a given year. For example, Tuesday night on ABC in 1986. He’s evolved a lot since I started watching his channel on IG, as he is now including Saturday morning cartoons. Retro Blast From the Past would also give the ratings for the shows from the year, and there were some real clunkers amid the great shows that finished in the top 10 or 20. You weren’t beating NBC Must See TV Thursday in the 1980’s or 1990’s, or ABC’s Tuesday Night lineup (except for 1984-85).

Like most channels, this one has gotten some criticism because the content isn’t interesting. Maybe some people don’t give a shit about the show’s ratings. In the beginning, it was confusing the give the #1 show even if it wasn’t on that network. If you don’t like it, scroll on. Another complaint was that you always see the guy’s face on there, and some didn’t like that. Oh well, haters gonna hate.

When CBS used to carry the NFC games, usually towards the end of the game they’d announce the Sunday night lineup. I always loved the way Pat Summerall said “Murder, She Wrote”. He’d say Murder and then pause and say the rest of the title. The things you remember from watching YouTube (which is where I discovered this).

In my Facebook memories on Tuesday, I was reminded of a blog that I posted five years ago just after the Chiefs won their first Super Bowl in 50 years. Did this post age badly after that? Ever since, Kansas City has become what New England used to be, and that’s a successful team that’s hated by the rest of the league. I am happy for Andy Reid because he never did get the opportunity to win a Super Bowl in Philadelphia, and he did come close in 2004. Little did I know at the time that a new dynasty was beginning and this was the beginning of multiple Super Bowl appearances by the Chiefs. They’d lose to Tom Brady the next year and fall to Cincinnati in the AFC Championship game in 2021.

My niece is a Kansas City fan mainly because of Taylor Swift, her favorite singer. She’s hoping the Chiefs three-peat on Sunday. Since the Steelers let me down every year, I’m rooting for my second favorite team, the Eagles, to spoil that historic moment.

Finally, 15 years ago tonight, one of our biggest snowstorms that I can remember was just beginning. The forecast was calling for a lot of snow in SWPA, and this one was close to what meteorologists were predicting. When it was all said and done, we ended up with over 21 inches of snow, behind the Blizzard of ’93 and the big Thanksgiving storm of 1950. We ended up with the third snowiest winter on record, and our snowiest February with over 41 inches of snow. At WIS, we were affected as events were canceled and had to be rescheduled. We weren’t done yet as another one pushed through the next week. As bad as that month was, we recovered nicely that Spring and had a nice summer.

Emotionally, that year for me was a struggle as I was going through growing pains at WIS and dealing with some other problems that I seemed to bring on myself. Plus, I was still having regrets about my college years that lingered for a long time after graduation.

Ah, the pre-Toastmaster days.