Parents Day

This Sunday, 26th July, is Parent's Day ... and why not indeed!

It's about time that kids got their act together and repaid their parents for all those late nights, smelly diapers, wallet-emptying days out, and general mayhem.

If we were all sensible about it we wouldn't have kids, would we? We'd enjoy long-lazy Sundays reading the newspapers, drinking cappuccinos and eating too many donuts.

The major downside about such a selfish attitude, as attractive as it might be, is that without kids there'd be no future, would there?

Another benefit that those little monsters bring, is lots of happiness. Oh yes, there's forced to be tears along the way and lots and lots of family squabbles, but in years to come the bad times are usually easily forgotten and all we have left are pleasant memories that we wouldn't want to be without. 

I'm beginning to sound like the George Benson "Greatest Love Of All" classic, so I better stop before I burst into song! My reason for mentioning that it is Parent's Day on the 26th is to give me a tenuous link to tell you about families and old time radio.

Over the years there have been some wonderful shows based around family life. Who could forgot the trials and tribulations of Henry and Mary, the two children in The Aldrich Family. 

Family life has changed considerably over the past six or seven decades, but parents of today (and children) will still smile at the similarities between the mayhem that goes on in each episode and their own domestic life now - maybe life isn't all that different today as it was back then.

Another famous radio family are the Riley's in Life of Riley, which was an hilarious comedy about Chester A Riley, his wife Peg and their two children Junior and Babs. There's also Phil Harris and Alice Faye, the Hardy Family, and I've recently found a whole heap of shows to add to the Baby Snooks series, and Archie Andrews series too, so make sure to look out for those over the coming weeks.

Happy listening my friends