Not chopped liver, I hope

Fri., January 24, 2003 - Today is Myrtle's 95 birthday, they're having a card shower for her.  This evening to movies in library.  Saw the 1st episode of "Gunsmoke" and the 1st episode of "Rawhide."  Received candy from Helen -- the delicious "turtles" for my birthday.

Sat., January 25, 2003 - Called Greta - gave her a list of things to bring next Sunday -- dried beef, etc.  Called Helen to thank her for the candy.

Sun., January 26, 2003 - Nancy worked yesterday so Mary came.  She & the kids came about 6:00.  I showered & Mary vacuumed.  I made 2 pans of sticky rolls - gave one to Mary.  Delores came in evening - found out she had known Rick's grandmother, Ruby!

Well, Grandma mentioned it was Aunt Myrtle's birthday on the 24th, but not that it was also mine.  But, I'm thinking that's because it was a big one for Aunt Myrtle -- ending in a "5" or "0" counts as a big one.  Heck, anything past 90 is pretty big news in my opinion.  So, I'm not offended.

I'm pretty sure I haven't seen the first episode of Gunsmoke, but I sure watched plenty episodes at Grandma's after school back in the day with Grandma Anna.  We must have watched a good amount of television in the summer, too, because I remember lots of game shows, Perry Mason, and The Rifleman.  But no soap operas.

The photo is obviously not from the first season, but I picked an image from the show that I remember.  I remember portions of one episode rather vividly.  Some bad guys had some good guys held hostage and were making them go about their regular daily business to avoid anyone knowing something was wrong.  One thing that happened was one hostage had to go out and put the flag up on the flagpole like he did every day.  Not too long after, the Gunsmoke crew came and took out the bad guys and rescued all the good guys.  I think Festus may have been one of the hostages.  The thing that got them rescued was that the guy putting up the flag did so with it upside down -- a signal of distress.  The bad guys obviously didn't notice.  I was really impressed that the guy took such a big change.  It was also the first time I learned that the flag could be used that way.  Information, thankfully, that I have not had to use.