Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others, Romper Room and Bowling for Dollars

Would June Cleaver like?

Would Ward agree?

To what?

To zero-ing in on a person’s core, Their values-center.

Of targeting. That core?

Give it time. To make sense. Let it simmer. Even salivate. Before digesting. In the meantime. A story, or two, for you:

Who, what, where, when, why, and how will we ever learn? Manners. Manners matter.

To walk in a room and assess what needs to be done. Depending on the story, a blast from the past can oftentimes help.

Franchised and syndicated from 1953-1994, Romper Room targeted preschoolers. (Humans aged five and under). (wk) At the time, the targeting of the five and under crowd was crowdsourced as: etiquette-ly educational information.

Founded on the awareness of the feelings of others. Presented with intentions of lead by example.

Romper Room also franchised internationally at various times in Canada, UK, Japan, Finland, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Australia. Languages of presentation were English and Spanish.

Kids would be on a waiting list for years (sometimes before birth) to be on the show.

Hmmmmmmmmm…….

Originally filmed in Baltimore from its inception in 1953, Romper Room eventually moved to Chicago broadcast facilities, and then moved back to Baltimore in 1981.

Each program opens with a greeting from the hostess, and the Pledge of Allegiance in the American broadcast.

The hostess and her group of children then embarked on 30-60 minutes of games, exercises, songs, story-telling and moral lessons.

WAIT!!!!!!!!! WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!😀😀😀😀😀😀😉😉😉😉😉😳😳😳😳

Moral lessons!?

which were regularly accompanied by background music.

REALLY!!!!!!!! HURRAY!!!!!!! NO WAY!!!!!!!!!

The young cast was rotated every two months.

Call it a tiny, pint-sized “focus” group.

Etiquette was a focus of Romper Room.

WAIT!!!!!!!!! WHAT!!!!!!!!!😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️

Etiquette!!!

REALLY!!!!!!! HURRAY!!!!!!!!NO WAY!!!!!!!!

Etiquette - A set of norms of personal behaviour in polite society usually occurring in the form of an ethical code of expected and accepted social behaviours that accord with the conventions and norms observed and practiced by society and social class of social guidance.

WAIT!!!!!!!! WHAT!!!!!!!

Ethical codes?!?!?

SIGN ME UP.🥹 Blessed be the accordion player!

The room. The Romper Room had a mascot, “Mr. Do-Bee. An over-sized bumblebee whose role was to teach the children proper deportment.

Deportment=Etiquette.

There was also a “Mr. Don’t-Bee”.

Enough said.

The host would also serve milk and cookies to the children. Before eating, they would recite the Romper Room prayer:

”God is great,

God is good,

Let us Thank Him

for out food”😀🥛🍪

At the end of each broadcast, the hostess would look through a “magic mirror”. Seeking new friends and old friends and wondering aloud about their happiness with themselves.

The last host of the syndicated series was Miss Sharon Jeffery. Miss Jeffery hosted the show from 1987 until the series was last filmed in 1992, although new episodes were aired until 1994. Miss Jeffery’s shows were filmed at KTVU in Oakland, California.

Tears of Joy in Romper Room. Daring, Sharing, Caring. To Care. About one’s friends. About one’s “Pal”.

Another arena for fighting the fight of our friends and pals was picking the perfect postcard at random and picking a new “Pin Pal”.

WAIT!!!!! WHAT!!!!!!!!!

A new friend? How can this be?

A new friend to share the riches, just by picking out a card?

To good to be true.

A random friend with which to share the riches with as one of them won in the alleys of “Bowling for Dollars”. The Pin Pal cards allowed the in- person player to join with the at-home viewer to participate in the game of life, on the alleys, on the bowling alleys of the TV game . Of life. Whatever the in-person contestant won, the at-home

participant won as well. All with the pick of a postcard “Pin Pal” card.

Hours of endless fun and games.

Nowadays, it potentially may be called something else. But let us not be cynical about the ways, the means. In the interest of good manners, let us remain positive!

In Bowling for Dollars, the half hour show had seven contestants. Each contestant received $1 for each pin knocked down. (The Pin Pal received the same for just “watching” with glee the effort and sweat of their new found “Pin Pal” pal.) As the production locations of Bowling for Dollars varied from place to place, location to location throughout the United States and Canada, Bowling for Dollars was produced by local TV stations and featured contestants from the immediate area. (wk)

The show reached its heyday in the 1970’s. The most recent station to air the format was Detroit, Michigan independent station WADL, which re-launched bowling for Dollars in September 2013.

In Detroit, the game was upped from milk and cookies to a dinner for two at a local restaurant if the in-person contestant bowled a spare. Even better if they rolled a split, they would get two large pies from Buddy’s pizza. Oh the yummy joy of it all.

Share and share alike. One does the hard work, the labor, two receive the prize, the pizza prizes. However, it is vital, and well worth it to note, culturally speaking, that what is considered polite in one culture can sometimes be quite rude or simply eccentric in another cultural context.

There is such a thing as negative politeness—making a request, may be infringing, such as “if you don’t mind”….or if this is too much “trouble”—respects a person’s right to act freely.

WAIT!!!!!WHAT!!!!!!!

There is a greater use of “indirect speech acts”. Also considered a part of being assertive. I see a new class class on the horizon….

UGH!!!! Or.

It’s about time.

Depends on how you roll.

Non-assertive politeness: when a person refrains from making a comment or asserting their beliefs during a discussion so as to remain polite to others present. Also when a person goes along with a decision made by someone else so as to not appear impolite.

Depends on how you roll.

Positive Politeness: Phew!!!!!! I though we’d never get here.

To the point.

To this point.

In a bombshell.

In a nutshell:

A person/persons who:

They show an awareness that the relationship is strong enough to cope with what would normally be considered impolite (in the popular understanding of the term).

They articulate an awareness of the other person’s values, which fulfills the person’s desire to be accepted.

Some cultures seem to prefer one of these kinds of politeness over the other. In this way, politeness is culturally bound.

As in,

Traditionally, for some culturally, a kiss at midnight symbolizes strengthening ties with a person. Form a solid foundation with and bond with in the future. It also can envelope a problem and the probable cause of whether it is time. What time it is.

Is it time for someone to go home yet?

Hmmmmm……..

Manners can tie, strengthen a bond of sensitive awareness. Of a centuries old legendary story of a kiss used to express a bound and bond with hopeful intention to stand the test of time.

Blow me one last kiss?

Or.

Innocent until proven guilty. The long held centuries old ties that bind can purposefully or inadvertently stretch and break an already fragile existing and dangling thread.