Wunnerful, Wunnerful

It's Lawrence Welk's birthday, so crank up the bubble machine and turn on the schmaltz.

I hated The Lawrence Welk Show, which aired on Sunday night, at least I remember it as airing on Sunday nights. My parents made us watch it every week. We had to listen to the Lennon Sisters and then listen to our mother say if we tried a little harder, we could all sing just as well and get us a spot on the show. We had to watch Bobby Burgess waltz with Cissy. Myron always did an accordion bit, and Tom Netherton sang some swooning thing--ack. It just never seemed to end. Just when you thought the pain and suffering had ended, Arthur Duncan would do an arm-swinging tap dancing number, and Joe Feeney would whale away on something like "Those Irish Eyes Are Smiling." Then my father would say, "boy that old Irishman sure can sing high." Then finally, it would fade to an Alka-seltzer commercial.

Thank God. Can we watch something else now, or is there more of this programming lobotomy? What ever I might think of the Lawrence Welk Show, the guy knew how to put on a show, and he knew how to make his generation feel good. So, here's to Lawrence Welk--"a one-a, and a two-a, and three-a."