The Human Mind... Open all NIGHT

Television Test Pattern

“The Human Mind... Open all NIGHT!”

By Glenn Peppers                                                                Febuary 2, 2014

Well, here I am, up briefly drinking water and peeking at my social media status, and what's on television in the wee hours of the night and/early morning. Ya know, I kinda miss the old days when TV use to sign off just after midnight. It seems folks slept all night more often then they do now. If you woke up in the middle of the night, or way too early back then, it was milk and cookies, and maybe a cold drumstick for you and back to bed. 

I remember if you woke up early back in the day, you'd re-read the funnies in The Detroit News, or learned new words and thumbed through the short stories in the Readers Digest; or skimmed through the Entertainment section of The Detroit Free Press until you got sleepy. I really liked reading the local Movie Listings section in both newspapers. Remember the ones that listed all the many neighborhood movie theaters and drive Inn's around the Detroit area that showed what was playing at each theater... even giving the times the movies were showing! and believe me, there were a lot of neighborhood theaters because there was no such thing as a paid television system like cable. Of course there was no satellite television. We only had one satellite up in space back then that we shot up into orbit in 1962 (it was called Telstar. And it was not readily available for consumer use at all. Just for Network use only). There was no home video tape, no DVD's or any such thing as Blu-Ray!

Late Night Radio DJ

Retro Transistor Radio

If you woke up in the middle of the night back in the day, you listened to whatever was on the radio late at night. Which back then in the late 1960's early 1970's was mostly underground jazz on public radio, gospel, and yes there was a country radio staion or two around that played country music all night as well! I mostly listened to pop music on CKLW in Detroit and Windsor, and soul music WJLB and/or WCHB Soul Radio... right up until they switched over to their gospel music format at 2am. I'd listen to gospel as well! Rance Allen and James Cleveland songs; by which time I was on the edge of sleep, ready to fall back to sleep on the couch, or at the kitchen table. 

The average Smart Phone

Back in the day, there was no computers or internet and social media to occupy our busy overloaded minds in the wee hours. In these days and times, digital technology has herded humankind into a much different direction, hasn't it? All those pretty little colors, lights and bleeps and beeps and Angry Birds on our Smart Phones, Tablets and Laptops and Desktops now command our attention front and center... 24/7, 365 and one half days a year! 

The Seduced Mind

I guess its official, we now live in a world that is (as the saying goes) "Always Open for Business!" Technology and convenience, right at our fingertips, occupying most all our time practically at will! So tell me; does this almost hypnotic, electronic, seductive occupation of our lives and time have to include the very taking over of our minds as well? It doesn't have to! I say set your own Sigh Off Time, and stick to it! Rest well my friends! I plan on doing so! And that's my friends is the end of this Broadcast!

Glenn Peppers