Cannonball to Shangri-La

The Summer of '64...

It really was the Window to the World...

When play with his neighbourhood gang was impossible on a rainy afternoon, the next best thing was the literally warm and fuzzy black and white television set. More than being merely entertained, Charlie Miller aspired to be in those places and do the things his heroes and heroines did.

Waukegan back then was a wondrous place for Very High Frequency Television. The industrial city was located on the shores of Lake Michigan halfway between Chicago's five stations and Milwaukee's three. Waukeganites were able to see them all, and the weather was often so bad that you didn't feel guilty about not being outside.

Charlie loved the late 1930s and 1940s films and reruns of the 1950s television shows best. He knew the stars of the films from many years before his birth better than he knew his own neighbours. They all were wonderfully dressed, well-mannered and witty. They burst out in song, jokes or laughter that lit up the world, or had intense looks of deep concentration, for eventually they knew everything of importance such as the detectives who could deduce all. Most films ended when the stars married as if 'happily ever after' was in a different world or on an Ultra High Frequency plane. There were exceptions, such as The Thin Man series where a married couple solved mysteries, otherwise 'happily ever after' in the 1940s films was depicted in the 1950s TV shows. Lucille Ball and Joan Davis were housewives, Eve Arden remained single but gave up the world of sophistication to use her wise cracks on her principal or her school children, and Loretta Young after spinning around to show off her new dress presented an anthology of dramatic stories.

He watched the men go off to fight and return from World War II as his own father and his uncles had. The jungles had identical palm and banana trees, palm and fern fronds, and kookaburras on the soundtrack. The same jungle was World War II in Burma or the South Pacific, Tarzan, lost safaris and ivory hunters in Deepest Darkest Africa, treasure seekers and adventurers in South and Central America, India or Southeast Asia and even in outer space where the spacemen travelled to Venus or the inside of the moon that was ruled by women who let the giant spiders run amok outside, for that's what happens when you don't have any men around. He not only loved science fiction, but the fantasies that could take you to a world beyond your dreams, such as going over the Lost Horizon to Shangri-La.

In addition to detective and horror films, Charlie's television set had its own sense of mystery. On very rare and unpredictable occasions the empty channels that remained in an image of 'snow' and the sound of static would under inexplicable atmospherics suddenly transmit images from stations from far off South Bend, Indiana and Grand Rapids, Michigan. The mysterious broadcasts would come out of nowhere, then vanish completely returning to snow and static like messages from Other Worlds.

* * *

Every Summertime and Christmastide Charlie's family travelled north to Wisconsin to spend a week with their relatives. He liked all of them, but his favourite by far was Auntie Mary who he would stay with for a night, having the excitement of sleeping on her couch in the living room. Like one of the characters in Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine, Auntie Mary was an actual living time machine who would take him to the Wonderful World of Long Ago. He would not merely see or hear about it, he would live in the time of his favourite films. Her eccentric small town seemed as it was twenty years ago where World War II was still raging or had only recently finished.

Both of Charlie's parents were from different towns in Wisconsin and their annual trips involved visiting a series of relatives with his father and older brother being able to go fishing on Lake Winnebago, something Charlie had no interest in. This gave him the chance to stay with Auntie Mary with just the two of them together. After his parents and brother spent the night with her, they left for their fishing and visiting and would pick up Charlie to continue their visits the next day.

It was time for fun and adventure that manifested itself in a walk to town as Auntie Mary did not have a motorcar.

They purchased bread from an aromatic bakery with a loud shaking bread slicing machine, and milk from a creamery that reeked of the smell of cows, as if they were playing cards in the back room.

They returned home and enjoyed a glass of milk out of a glass bottle with cream on the top and the fresh bread with her own homemade strawberry preserves.

They made another journey to the rest of the town. Charlie had a taste of being a celebrity as people would stop the pair of them and say,

'Don't tell me this is your nephew, Charlie?'

The trio would converse in happy topics. His family's visit would actually be mentioned in print in the town's weekly newspaper, though his Auntie confided that the town didn't really need a newspaper as everyone knew everything about everyone else.

No one was in a hurry, no one looked at their watch. The pair talked to each other and all those they met in a variety of topics. The number one topic of the day was the hot summer weather and how the rain would soon come as there was no dew on the grass that morning. Everyone seemed happy...

They inspected the 'French 75' howitzer in front of the small American Legion building, where she talked of her father who served in The Great War and his late uncle who had also been a National Guardsman sent to far off Australia, New Guinea, the Philippines and Japan.

They arrived at the women's clothing shop where she showed him off to the staff and she asked his opinion on some of the colourful frocks. It would be his turn to shop at the town's dimestore that still featured the old wooden furnishings and bins. There weren't that many American made toys for ten cents, but Auntie Mary said it was a 'special occasion'. So, for 29 cents Charlie eventually chose a small bag of brightly coloured plastic spacemen with helmets, oxygen tanks and ray guns for only two of them, an A-frame rocket launcher that used a rubber band to fire its missile and an astronaut flag.

The fun continued as they went to the town's green shady park where the pair were the only ones there; they rode side by side on the swings together.

She produced something from her purse that she had purchased from the dimestore.

'Forever Yours is my favourite candy bar, but I can't eat one all by myself; can you help me please?'

She broke the candy bar in half, they ate it together.

' Forever Yours ...', she said wistfully.

There was a touch of the eternal when they visited the cemetery where she showed Charlie the grave of his Uncle who he couldn't remember meeting. Her name was engraved next to his. She briefly spoke of the automobile accident that killed him and nearly killed her where she suffered something called a miscarriage and could no longer have any children.

Afterwards they pondered the imposing Victorian mansion that was the town's funeral home; it resembled a well-kept haunted house.

They looked at the film posters of the town's theatre and she told him stories of her Saturday Afternoon Journeys to Adventure. In those days every true-blue fearless cowboy hero had a beloved intelligent horse as well as a dimwitted but hilarious comedy relief sidekick who had a name like one of Snow White's Seven Dwarves. Saturday afternoons were spent with the other children watching and cheering as they brought justice to the West by bringing powerful evil to the ground screaming for mercy in double features. There were additional thrills from the weekly serial chapter and more laughs with a cartoon or two and a comedy short subject.

They walked further down the hill to the drug store for the twin purposes of filling her prescription and sitting at a soda fountain cooled by ceiling fans. The white coated pharmacist himself seemed to enjoy going back in time to be a soda jerk and he made Charlie's cherry phosphate with the intensity of a mad scientist, concluding with putting in a drop of phosphoric acid as if it were a secret deadly explosive. Charlie expected a flash of coloured light and an atomic mushroom cloud over his soda, but it didn't occur.

'You see Charlie, in a small town we have time for everything. Time for conversation, time for laughter, time to indulge in your memories. That's what time should really be for. Promise me you'll never forget that.'

Their last stop was the town's market; you couldn't really call it a super market. Again, he was shown off and they conversed with the grocer who wore a white apron and had a pencil behind his ear. The grocer boxed her order but said there was something missing, what type of candy bar would Charlie like? Life didn't get any better than that...

Charlie wondered if he would be able to carry her box of groceries, but Auntie Mary and the grocer laughed that in their town, the market delivered the groceries to the customer's home.

At noon a World War II air raid siren sounded from the town's water tower. Charlie expected to hear and see a squadron of German bombers overhead, but there was only the noise of the traffic on the main street highway.

They returned home with Charlie keen to watch the small goods train shunting down a siding by the cannery his mother had worked at during the war. She spoke of her youth when small steam passenger trains took her to neighbouring towns.

As she made lunch Charlie played with his spacemen, where the two fully kitted out true blue spacemen fired the missile to knock down the remaining evil yellow, red and gold spacemen, Auntie Mary provided some toothpicks so they would have spears as the blue spacemen had landed on a hostile primitive planet like Rocketship X-M. She gave him an unused cocktail shaker to use as Rocketship X-M.

After lunch and washing the dishes together, she travelled to Charlie's planet to check on the results of his Outer Space Adventure and had a go at firing the missile a few times.

'Charlie, I need your help.'

Her home soon filled with a delightful aroma as they created a Devil's Food Cake.

Then there were games of cards and more conversation and laughter with each other and the grocery deliveryman.

The telephone rang and she chatted as Charlie continued his Adventures on Mars.

She informed him that her friend had invited the pair of them to an 'Ice Cream Social' and there would be a special surprise.

Again, Charlie was shown off to her friends and they conversed and joked over ice cream, Auntie's cake and homemade fruit punch. The special surprise was that her friend was one of the few people in the town who had the then miraculous device of...a colour television. Her friend acted as a cinema owner and they had more punch, cake and ice cream as they watched the afternoon movie, Wake Up and Dream, a pleasant Technicolor fantasy film.

'What did you learn from the film, Charlie?'

'Sometimes you have to believe what you know is right, not what other people tell you is right.'

'Don't forget that either.'

Upon leaving her friend's house in the company of the other women they walked down the pleasant, shaded sidewalks and discussed the film. They noticed the dark of the sky, then the wind picking up, the temperature dropping, the lighting and thunder. Everyone made it home in time to watch the spectacular tempest...

* * *

It was Tuesday evening, and it was 'television night'.

By being on Planet Auntie Mary, for the first time he regarded a television as it was in the films of the 1930s; an amazing art deco futuristic device. After the lengthy warming up process that seemed to take nearly a minute, he expected the first thing to be seen was Ming the Merciless or Bela Lugosi issuing terrifying threats to the Earth, the planet Mongo or the entire Universe...The CBS logo now seemed to be an all-seeing eye that watched you as you watched it...

In her home the television was rarely turned on, but when it was, it was avidly watched and savoured. Even the commercials were enjoyed as much as cartoons or a short subject in the weekly Saturday cinema programme, for in 60 seconds or less an infinite universe of insurmountable problems were immediately and finally solved with the help of a beloved best friend or a familiar but magical figure ranging from Josephine the Plumber to Mr. Clean; all ended in happiness and a better world.

After enjoying the comedy of The Red Skelton Show and the variety of his musical guest and dancers, it was time for her favourite television programme, Petticoat Junction. He always found it fascinating watching a television programme through another person's eyes, especially if he loved that person and that person loved that particular 'show'. Hollywood and Televisionland termed Petticoat Junction 'cornball hick shtick', for both regarded every word beginning with an 'sh' or 'sch' as something odious and derogatory, just as much as they derided those that didn't live in Los Angeles or New York City that they called 'hicks from the sticks'. By contrast, to those like Auntie Mary it was her weekly trip to her very own personal Shangri-La.

The pair discussed it after the news and weather on the 'wireless', for Auntie Mary avoided watching television news that she regarded as hysteria, in the same manner as Orson Welles' The War of the Worlds broadcast. She was in bed well before what she regarded at the late hour of 10 p.m. anyway.

The pair dressed for bedtime as she brewed some herbal tea she believed would give them a sound sleep with pleasant dreams; she would never allow nightmares in her home.

Over the final cup of tea before their trip to Slumberland, she explained her fascination with Petticoat Junction. To her, and especially to her childhood and teenage friends who married and moved to larger cities, from the opening sound of the steam train whistle of the Hooterville Cannonball, the viewer was transported to happiness and a visit with friends as close as their own relatives. The catchy happy opening song relating the characters and synopsis introduced the first-time viewer to what they were in for and for the regular viewer it was the anticipated journey to a beloved home away from home called the Shady Rest Hotel.

She explained that the engineer of the steam train and his combined fireman/baggage master and conductor sidekick who literally wore a different hat for each of his functions, were once comical cowboy sidekicks from her Saturday afternoon Westerns.

Lazy scheming Uncle Joe had once been the King of the Sidekicks who reached the heights of playing a judge or an easy-going lawman. Kate, the owner of the Shady Rest was a clever woman like Auntie Mary who was able to solve every problem using a mixture of good old fashioned horse sense and feminine wiles. She had formerly been George Burns and Gracie Allen's neighbour and the female voice on the Warner Bros. cartoons he loved. Her three stunningly beautiful daughters had separate personalities of boy crazy, bookworm and tomboy.

Like the old Westerns, the plots seemed the same; Uncle Joe's get rich quick schemes that backfired, the man who played the heartless bureaucrat since the days of the 1930s Frank Capra films trying to seize and destroy the Hooterville Valley's cherished train, and the harried big city businessman who had forgotten how to relax, all learned their lessons at the Shady Rest.

He remembered watching the first episode of the series, where it was explained that a bridge collapsed twenty years ago and the spur line, cut off from the world, had continued by itself. He realised that was Auntie Mary and her town in a nutshell. To Charlie the show was an outgrowth of the episode of The Twilight Zone entitled A Stop at Willoughby.

She literally tucked Charlie into his bed on the couch, gave him a story and a kiss. He slept soundly.

After breakfast the next morning he helped her with her laundry and gardening and over their morning bread and milk, his parents and brother came to pick him up for their journeys to visit other relatives. Auntie Mary's hugs were unforgettable.

* * *

It was several months later that his sobbing mother informed him that Auntie Mary had died.

The visitation of her remains in the Victorian funeral home went on for three days; Charlie prided himself on not crying. He touched her remains and it seemed that the smell on his fingers remained for well over a year. She was laid to rest next to her husband in the cemetery they had visited, he saw photographs of him and the pair together.

He couldn't bring himself to join the after-funeral festivities, it somehow didn't seem appropriate.

* * *

Back in Waukegan he was rotating the dial of the channels on his parent's television set, his parents and brother were shopping for clothes downtown.

He flipped on one of the phantom channels, and suddenly there was an old steam train. He wondered whether it was Petticoat Junction or another old film but to his surprise he saw Auntie Mary holding a baby and his Uncle smiling and waving at him from the train.

'I miss you!', Charlie shouted.

Auntie Mary blew him a kiss and the channel reverted to snow and static. He remembered,

'Sometimes you have to believe what you know is right, not what other people tell you is right.'

FIN

Author Notes: Happy Chinese New Year, Tiger!
I am the author of three Extra Dimensional/Ultraterrestial military science fiction novels MERCENARY EXOTIQUE, OPERATION CHUPACABRA and WORK IN OTHER WORLDS FROM YOUR OWN HOME! as well as two travel books THE MAN FROM WAUKEGAN and TWO AUSTRALIANS IN SCOTLAND (all from Lulu.com). I live happily ever after with my wife in paradise (coastal Kiama, NSW Australia).

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