You do not have to be 55 to know the impact of Kennedy's assassination.
You do not have to be 105 to know that Ty Cobb was the greatest hitter ever to play the game of baseball.
And you do not have to be 45 to know of the great Johnny Carson.
I recently watched a documentary the other day with my father about the late and great Tonight Show host, Johnny Carson. I knew of him and had seen clips of him throughout my life and through stories from my father, mother, grandmother, grandfather and really any family member of mine.
Every time one of them talked about the Tonight Show, you could see the child in their eye. Just that happiness, that unexplainable happiness that you try to put into words but just cannot, no matter how hard you try.
Needless to say, I rarely get goosebumps. And when I do, they usually come from songs. When John Lennon says, "I read the news today, oh boy..." at the beginning of "A Day In The Life" or when the intro to the Beach Boys' "God Only Knows" comes on and every time Paul Simon opens his mouth.
But even more rarer than that, do I get goosebumps from just being in the presence of greatness.
I got them last night by the presence of Johnny Carson on my television.
Now I know how what my father, mother, grandmother, grandfather and really any family member of mine really felt when Carson was on every night.
I do have to say that I love watching things like this when they come on television. But what I love even more is the fact that I can watch things like this with my parents. The act of watching something from Don Rickles or Bill Cosby or Frank Sinatra or Dean Martin back in the day, and having an as mutual admiration for it as my parents, is truly something very special.
While watching the documentary I was reminded of watching something with my mother a month before on Victor Borge. Now, many people of my age probably do not not know who this man is, but you should. And because of my mom I do.
Thanks mom.
When the documentary concluded with a montage about Carson's death, I could see my dad getting emotional. Or in the words of Mike Myer's character in the "Coffee Talk" sketches on SNL, "A little verklempt."
I have only seen my father cry about five times in my lifetime. Two of which occurred because of something on the television.
First, it was the episode of Wonder Years, where the dad, Jack Arnold sell's the old family family Stationwagon for a brand new car. Every one in the Arnold family wanted to see the old Stationwagon go, But, when it finally did they realized how much they loved it. And Neil Young's "Long May You Run" played during a montage of memories with the family's car.
Yesterday was that second time.
After it concluded and I noticed a shift and crack in my father's voice, we started talking about Carson. I told him of my favorite Carson clips that I watched on YouTube and he told me some of his.
We both got to talking about his famous sketches and guests. We talked about Carnac the Magnificent and how my dad said that Carson always jabbed at Ed McMahon and would call him things like, "Budweiser Breath". We talked about Carson and Sinatra. But in the end, we both agreed that Carson's bits with Don Rickles were the best.
I told him about the episode where Don Rickles broke Johnny Carson's cigarette box while Bob Newhart was filling in for Carson. Then next night Carson found out about it and tracked down Rickles, who was filming an episode of CPO Sharky, live across the hall.
My father smirked and said, "I remember watching that when it happened."
And that is the consensus with stories of that time. Of my parents' time. Of my grandparents' time.
They remembered with great reverence when those things happened.
I am just lucky and I am privileged that I was shown and told stories about people like Johnny Carson and stories about things that happened "back in the day" by my father, mother, grandmother, grandfather and really any family member of mine.
So I too can experience that unexplainable happiness.
