[OttawaFreeper]

The Labour Day Telethon used to annoy me as a kid back in the 1970s as it would cut out on the last day of summer holidays Captain Kangaroo and other shows I liked watching during the daytime on CBS (WHEC-TV in Rochester was our outlet). Later on though, I began to very much recognize and respect and appreciate the work Jerry did with the telethon and I was saddened a little when it was finally retired a few years back.

I get the impression that a good deal of progress has been made concerning gene identification and therapy in terms of beating horrid MD and it’s related problems, so I feel good that Jerry lived to see those sorts of successes.

[SamAdams76]

Yeah, same here! The Labor Day telethons was always a sober reminder that the new school year was just around the corner. Back in the 1970s, we only had about six or seven stations to watch including two or three on the UHF band that required much manipulation of the rabbit ear antenna to bring in. Eventually the rabbit ears broke off and my father replaced them with a standard coat hanger - which amazingly seemed to work even better than the original rabbit ears.

Back then, TV was something to do at night. During the day, we'd be pretty much outdoors riding our bicycles and playing pickup ball games the whole time.