Back in the 60s, the music rage was folk. The Kingston Trio…Peter, Paul, and Mary…Bob Dillon…and the like. One of the things we young hipsters liked to do was get together and sing. It didn’t matter that I couldn’t carry a tune in a dump truck, I could play a guitar. It didn’t take much talent to play 3 chords which was all that was required for most of the songs. Occasionally we’d get together with another couple at a home but sometimes it would be more elaborate.

In those days most commercials were made in the studio which called for a full-time crew…cameramen, director, audio folks, tape operators, etc. Location commercials were always filmed and for local businessmen, the cost was out of the question. But you could put your studio commercial on 2-inch tape relatively inexpensively.

Which brings me to the almost daily lunchtime ritual in the studio of WRVA TV (WWBT). Dick, the head cameraman, had both a guitar and a great voice. He was joined by cameramen Wes and Charlie. Harmony came from Bob from the film department, directors Frank and Gerald, and a couple of women from traffic. The sound was amazing. We could have formed a folk group right then except we had to get back to work.

This was brought to mind a couple of days ago when Charlie contacted me through a Facebook chat group. Fifty years ago and it almost seems like last week. Let’s hear it for Facebook and memories.

When lunchtime was over, we put away the guitars, stuffed down a sandwich, and set up for the afternoon commercials. Live TV. There is something to be missed. -dm