My Memories of Tom Snyder
When I was a kid, I asked my mother one Tuesday (why do I remember that it was a Tuesday, well, you will find out) about this word I kept hearing. I was in third grade.
We were a family that watched a lot of television. Big Daddy was, and still is, a fanatic about news. My mother liked situation comedies, variety shows and the like in the early 70’s. Yeah, I watched The Brady Bunch, The Partridge Family and a whole lot of stuff that was probably considered racy in its day.
So, it was either a rerun of Laugh-In or Maude, if memory serves me right that had me thinking about this word I kept hearing.
A couple of weeks after I had heard it more than once, I was sitting on our black vinyl (Woot) furniture this fine day and I blurted to my mother this very sentence, “Momma, what is this sex thing I keep hearing about on television?”
She took a deep breath. If I remember, she took another.
And then, we sat for hours and I was so utterly and terribly appalled about this “sex thing” I wanted to scream. I think I interrupted her more than once thinking she was pulling the wool over my eyes.
Finally, after I had exhausted my poor 8-year-old cranium, totally freaked out, and quite frankly, disgusted about how babies were made, that you only do it “with someone you love” (a point she said over and over again) and sorta tried to block out that weird feeling that was lurking in the pit of my stomach that I remember having each time I learned more and more about the adult world, I looked at the television. (At this point my mother had a glass of wine in her hands and the ashtray was overflowing from her Salem cigarette butts. I think this was as hard on her as it was on me.)
Tom Snyder was on. It was that late because his show “Tomorrow” was glaring back at me on the screen. Snyder died yesterday at the age of 71 and I must say that all of these memories of me learning about sex came flying back in.
Tom Snyder. Yeah, I know. This is very odd.
So, my entire life, in learning the world of sex, I always have a smoking, stuttering Tom Snyder image in my head.
No wonder I’m demented.
Thanks Tom. Or not.
Anyway, I thought you were pretty groovy although I do need to wash my brain out with whiskey.
Ahhhh, memories.
ah, I remember watching him too…that cigarette…that laugh…
Another part of our childhood fading away. *sigh*
I don’t know whether to laugh or be horrified by your story, Coma.
I’m sort of both, Ron.
In any event, ahem, Tom Snyder was a ground-breaker in many ways, most of them good. He allowed us to see things we had only heard about, and surely had not experienced. He never exploited these new and wondrous things, however, as cable news and Fox would do later.
I always enjoyed him, and I am saddened by his passiing.
I am too.
And, sorry I made your eyes bleed, LWC.
Love Tom Snyder.
My grandfather and aunt both smoked Salems.
I dig me some Tom too.
This post made me cry. I didn’t know Tom had died until I read it. (Odd that he died of leukemia) I will miss him.
I’ve been out on the road for two days … my mom chain-smoked salems all the way there and back. (cough)
Your ’sex’ talk took me back to when I was in nursing school & decided to tell my 10 yr old son the ‘facts’. He was so disgusted, he proclaimed, ‘Mom, I will NEVER do that!’
He’s 42 now.. do I still hold him to that statement?
;o)
I remember Tom Snyder’s show. I’ll always remember his bad haircut.
Did you know Tom was 6′5? Regis told a great story on him yesterday.