Cable Shows

The reason we moved to Jersey City was because my mom had a couple of childhood friends who lived there.  She was still working in Brooklyn, and she commuted for a couple of hours each way every day.  One of those friends was a teacher, and my mom enrolled me at the Catholic school where she taught.  The other friend was a nurse who had two kids.  The younger one was a girl, about five years old at the time, and the other was a boy, about ten or eleven when I was twelve.  My mom's two friends were sisters.

The boy and I were meant to be friends.  We did play together.  He had a lot of toys and action figures.  They were all kind of different collections of stuff, whereas my toys were generally a bunch of the same things.  I had a few ninja turtles figures and a lot of G.I. Joes.  I liked those G.I. Joes because they were very movable.  But my friend, who was called Jackson because his dad's name was Jack, his toys were all sort of different things, different sizes.  I guess it's hard to describe, but there was sort of no rhyme or reason for them, just randomness, I guess.  

We didn't have cable at home.  It was not in our budget, believe it or not.  I think it may have been thirty dollars a month for basic, but whatever it was, we still couldn't afford it.

I liked coming over to Jackson's house because they did have cable.  I can't really remember what shows I watched there but I liked having a lot more channels and a lot more choices.  I think mostly we watched Nickelodeon.

Some of the shows he liked were "Eureka's Castle".  I didn't really get it.  But he seemed to enjoy it.  I usually waited until commercials so we can see what else was on, or I would have to wait until the end of the show.  But I think I was successful in making him move on from it.

On weekend mornings, there would be a lineup of cartoons on USA Network.  I can't remember specifically what shows, but I think I was satisfied with what they had.  Let me see if I can googalize it.  

So based on the search results, I think "Mighty Mouse" was the only one I was pretty certain I got to watch.  Maybe also "Scooby Doo".  But in any case, I wasn't really there much on weekend mornings, but I do remember being happy that there were other cartoon options.

And then at some point, there was also another WWF show that came on, maybe around 10am.  I remember feeling like I missed out on so much action, not seeing those matches on the two weekend shows I watched on regular TV.  Eventually there would also be Monday night programming, and I think I may have asked Jackson to tape them for me, but he never did.

On weekday afternoons, I can't remember if we watched cable, but I remember Jackson liking the muppet babies on Fox.  I didn't like it and couldn't get into it and just remember feeling like I was missing out on the Disney afternoon, even though at that point I had probably seen most if not all of those episodes already.  He also liked "Woody Woodpecker", but I thought he was a troublemaker, unlike Bugs Bunny who generally minded his own business until someone else messed with him.  In the mornings there was also "Looney Tunes" on ABC.  I think it was called the "Bugs Bunny and Tweety Hour" or something like that.  That one we generally both liked, as well as his little sister.  I think there was another show on cable as well, but I'm not sure if it was on USA Network.

I think that was one reason why Jackson and I never really got close.  We were friendly enough, but most of the time, I preferred to stay home where I got to control what goes on the TV, even with limited options.  When I did come over, I liked to watch the shows I liked when he was distracted with playing with his toys or something else.  He may have been frustrated with me, too, because I think most of the time I looked forward to watching cable more than spending time with him.