VIRTUALLY - Part 1

I was fascinated watching my 4 ½ year old granddaughter Violet playing a game on her personal iPad.  She noticed me trying to see her screen and asked, “Grandpa do you have an iPad?”  I replied with a chuckle, “I wish, but I am not as lucky as you are who have parents who give you very nice presents.”  She thought about this for a moment and then asked, “Did you have games like this when you were growing up?”  And said, “Sort of,” and then she went back to her game.  And I began to think about Winky Dink and You, and me!  My first “interactive” media fun.

Every Saturday morning in 1953 I had a routine.  Breakfast of peanut butter, jelly and milk and then waiting for the new kid’s show to start a program on our 10” Admiral TV to come on.  I was always early so sometimes I would just look at the picture of an Indian Chief in a feather headdress accompanied by an annoying humming sound.  As I waited I wondered  what trouble Winky, the little imp with a squeaky voice, would get into this week and how I would help him out of his weekly jams.  I used to just watch the story but Mom bought me a Winky Dink Magic Kit and I was part of the show.  It had a Magic Window, which sheet of plastic stuff that stuck to the television screen and special crayons (that could be purchased for 50 cents when you used had used them all up). This let me draw pictures on the TV screen without getting into trouble.  

Finally the show started as the music played a theme song I liked to sing and Mr. Barry, Wink’s friend, welcomed us all back for another adventure.  

Wink was a cartoon "kid" noted for his plaid pants and his dog woofer. Winky would arrive on a scene and start a story but needed my help to complete. Last week I drew a bridge to get across cross a river; he always got into some kind of trouble and needed my help to get out of it!  This week before he was looking for Woofer who was lost and I was asked to connect some dots which made a bridge so his puppy could come back home…

And then I was back in the present. I interrupted Violet’s intense concentration on her screen.  “Violet I remember now...want to hear about a great adventure game I played?  When I was young…and TV’s were very new...