I want my MTV was a catchphrase of children of the 80s from the promos by MTV to attempt to put pressure on cable companies to carry the fledgling network,but since living in the Tilghmanton/Fairplay market better known as the "Twin Cities" kept me from seeing it.
The Twin Cities didn't get cable until the spring of 1984 and even then it was from a fly-by-night outfit that offered "cable" that consisted of ESPN (Yay), better reception of existing channels from Baltimore and Washington, and the option of HBO, so it wasn't until an "upgrade" by this bunch two years later that we finally got our MTV.
However, the network that calls itself Music Television which currently rarely shows much of it, is not really what I think of when I think of Music Television or how I better remember it as TV Music.
TV Music was part of the grooviest elementary school around in my area as Fountain Rock Elementary was opened in the spring of 1972 and as a result, was designed with all the modern thoughts of the time.
Open classrooms, few walls, two grades in the same class, and decor straight out of Hullabaloo made Fountain Rock quite an interesting place.
I ride by it once a week to go to my parents and it has had additions to the exterior, but the same school that was there in September of 1973 (I was in the second class to start Kindergarten there) is pretty much remaining as the base of the facility.
I have not stepped inside since my brother was attending FRS in the early 80s, but my friend Krista has stated that there has been a renovation on the inside that while saddens me was likely needed considering that style of decor likely went out of style before I finished fifth grade in 1979, let alone today or whenever the renovation occurred.
I really wanted to take a tour of the old place, but these days of safety first, someone would likely (and rightfully so ) wonder who the weird old guy was wandering the halls with the odd smile on his face.
There still is one remaining piece of original playground equipment, maybe one day the author can get a pic of it.
I'll talk more about FRS on another rainy day, but for today it's TV Music.
TV Music was in its infancy in the 70s and basically went like this -the central Board of Education used two music teachers to videotape programs, send them around to the schools, and as a result added a music program to schools without the cost of a music teacher.
They generally used a theme that ran throughout the school year, but since FRS mixed grades in a class (2nd and 3rd,4th and 5th), you didn't always get the "seasons' in order.
I remember a student moving to FRS for his 5th grade year and FRS was showing the 4th grade tape (we had seen the 5th the year before) and the result was the befuddling of the student and the "storyline" being completely blown because he told us what happened!
My memory here is colored through the eyes of a child, but the programs were in black and white due to limitations of the technology, The machine was roughly the size of a VW Bug and the tapes were not much smaller.
I remember one season being a music TV knockoff of the popular Starsky and Hutch and another was roughly a marooned singer doing a Lost in Space-type story, but I could be off a little.
I cannot remember the male star, but I believe the female lead was named Mrs.Perry and they always sang very slowly and distinctly in order for the children to understand the words, learn the song, and therefore be able to sing the song.
But the even odder things looking back are some of the songs that elementary school students were singing with TV Music!
Keep in mind this is the middle to late 1970s which means many of the teachers and people taking charge were people that were college students in the late '60s and early 70's, which was noted earlier in the design and decor of the school, but they likely had a lot of influence in the songs that were selected.
I remember singing Peter, Paul, and Mary's "Puff the Magic Dragon" and Pete Seeger's "Where Have All the Flowers Gone" In hindsight those could be seen as controversial choices considering the content and the location being firmly in "Red State" territory before the term was coined.
Tennessee Ernie Ford's "Sixteen Tons" was another weird staple and I always got a weird kick singing a song about people who were part of "Making our Country Grow" which included Brigham Young, who I knew only through BYU football and their 1970's resurgence behind QB Gary Shiede and his successor Gifford Nielsen.
I also remember singing songs from Marlo Thomas of "THAT GIRL" fame's "Free to Be" special that was pretty strong for the time with a pro-feminist slant that seems tame by today's standards, but somewhat controversial for the era.
Even still on occasion "Jill told Bill" pops out of nowhere with my goofy lounge act that usually sends my kids careening away in horror.
I remember those times fondly,20 kids huddled around a TV watching a scratchy black and white broadcast sitting sometimes on the floor with boys sitting "Indian style" and girls sitting "Princess style" singing songs as a unit as part of an experiment in schooling that I would say was a flawed one doomed to fail by its design.
But I still wonder what happened to some of my favorite teachers from that time, Since I have had no contact, it's hard to say.
So to Ms, Kisner, Ms., Rutherford, Ms. Norris, who became Mrs. Buhrman and might be the only one still at FRS, Mr.Martin, who showed me how to figure out batting averages and ERA and stoked my love for space, and especially Ms.Lucic-thanks, wherever you are and whatever you became for your small (and in one case large) part in making me what I am.
Not bad for a "counter-culture" school, huh?
I may be back later with a short look at the Cavaliers' win over the Brooklyn Nets in their opener.
