"Here's Johnny!"

We were always put to bed at the very same time every night as kids, usually most evenings were spent with our mom cooking dinner and our father watching TV. We would eat dinner, take a bath and play in the toy room while we wore our Pajamas. Our mother would be washing dishes or cleaning the bathroom while our father watched the News. By the time we were in bed I would lay wide awake thinking over every detail of that day. I would lay there asking myself why did this or that happen and what does it all mean? I would play back everything in my mind for a long time after we had been put to bed. Then I would know what time it was by the sound of the TV programs where my father sat in his green chair. I LOVED the music of the "Tonight Show with Johnny Carson" It was fun to mouth along from my bed "Hhhhhhhhere's Johnny!" (These were the days back in the 1980s, when most everyone watched the same TV programing at the same time.) As a little kid I knew the whole dialogue to the Johnny Carson show simply by listening from my bed down the hall. I pictured a very young man looking very tall at the sound of his voice and I would wonder why everyone on the show was always laughing. Even when my father laughed from his chair... I would think about what was so funny? When I would recite back the next day to my father what was on the Johnny Carson show he asked if I was getting out of bed to watch TV. I said casually "Oh No, I am just listening and remembering everything from my bed." He shot me a startled look. I couldn't help but remember his sudden look, I wonder if maybe he realized I was such an odd child for the first time.

 (Years later when I actually saw Johnny Carson on TV I knew him by the sound of his voice, I was shocked that he didn't look ANYTHING like I had pictured....YET He was a classic to always remember!)