In the fall of 1955, I walked out to the end of the sidewalk, stood at the side of Fruit Ridge Road, and waited for the school bus to arrive and take me to Moscow school where I would enter the first grade. This was a big day in my life to say the least. I was going to learn how to read and write and all of that was exciting to me as my sister and brother had already done such. I knew I would be able to talk to them on their own level. At least that was what I felt was going to happen. This was in a child’s life an event that is major but that was only a part of that year. 
Out in California was a man named Walt Disney. Mr. Disney had created Mickey Mouse an animated character who if you were a child you had heard of him for sure. Along with Mickey he had made some full-length animated movies such as “Snow White’ and “Lady and the Tramp” to name a couple. However, in the fall of 1955 Walt Disney had decided it would be a wise move to advertise his movies and such by doing three things. He created a once a week television program entitled “The wonderful World of Disney.”
This program took the country by storm as it appealed not just to children but also to their parents. To me at that time was a bigger item Mr. Disney created and that was the Mickey Mouse Club!
Here was the first hour-long program recorded and dedicated to children. Therefore, when I got off the school bus in the afternoons I rushed into the house, put my books on the dining room table, and got a glass of milk and something to snack on as I planned to be in front of the television for a good while. Please do not forget that I was in that first generation of television and to my way of thinking this was the biggest thing to hit the screen since its invention. So I would get the television on and warmed up as Dick Clark’s American Bandstand was still on. In addition, what I was waiting to see would follow that show. On American Bandstand I kind of liked it as it played rock and roll music and had young teens dancing to the music and each day there would be another performer there singing their newest song. Since Peg and Ben liked this show and rock and roll it helped me to stay caught up on what was happening on the teen level.
It helped to have this on first but at four O’clock, a man named Jimmie Dodd would look out of my TV and ask, “What time is it? To which a stage full of kids dressed alike with their names on their shirts and wearing mouse ears would shout out the answer to his question “It’s time for the mickey mouse club”! With their enthusiasm and loud response there was in no way you could not be whipped up into a frenzy as it was your show and now it was on. For an hour every week day this cast of sixteen or seventeen ten to twelve year olds would sing songs and dance and interact with each other During the show there would be a cartoon or a segment from a mini series type of show and all of this hour was aimed at the kids in front of their television sets. I know I covered it at our house, as I did not want to miss a second of this magic.
All of this came from the creation of a mouse. I knew every kid on the show by name. (Pretty easy as it was on their shirts.) I also fell in love with Annette the prettiest one in the cast. I even wrote her a letter and got a signed photo from her. Therefore, you see it was love a t first sight and I learned early on in life that learning how to write was very important far more than I had thought it would. You knew when the hour was about up when the cast would come together and sing “M I C K E Y MOUSE”. Sadly, an hour had passed and I could not understand how that hour passed so quickly but I knew we would see each other again the next day.
The double dose was on Thursday evenings when the wonderful world of Disney would be on and that took up another hour. During this hour, the themes fell in four different categories. Fantasyland, frontier land, future land and adventure land I think were the titles. Also in the same year, Mr. Disney decided to create a theme park out in California and of course, it would be called none other than Disneyland. About once every three months, there would be an update on the wonderful world of Disney and of course it fell under future land and it was way beyond anything I had ever seen before. Looking at this now Disney took a huge chance to do all this at the same time but it had been proved it was a monster success and television played such a huge part in his marketing plan. All I knew was that he had sold me.
I liked the weekly program and all the areas of life he opened up for us all to see. It was so popular that on the next day at school the teacher set a time aside so that each child in the class could stand by their desk and tell the class just what part of the program did they like the best. (I hated being last as all the good stuff had been talked about.) However, think how rare was something of this nature that would cause a teacher to add it to the curriculum?
Still and all I had to put the Mickey Mouse Club first in my opinion of the best programs.
Please remember all of them were extra good but old Mickey always won out with me. So come four o’clock I was right in front of that television with my mouse ears on and waiting for Jimmie to ask that magical question, “What TIME IS IT KIDS”? I would yell it back at him and spent the next hour in a land that was only for children. Maybe that was why I never saw the rest of my family then.
Rick Houser grew up on a farm near Moscow in Clermont County and loves to share stories about his youth and other topics. If you are interested in reading more of his stories they can be found in his books ‘There are Places to Remember” and’ Memories ARE from the Heart.” He may be reached at houser734@yahoo.com or mail to P.O. Box 213 Bethel, Ohio 45106.