Butchy the Chicken Whisperer chap 12.

Now how a bespectacled kid could be named Butchy? The name Butchy or just Butch is often reserved for pub nosed freckled faced red hair bullies. Just like the one portrayed on the Little Rascals from early L A TV. Remember. I was a glasses wearing sandy hair Okie boy and as my older sister described me looking like a pint size bookkeeper. But anyway my so-called nick name came from me and my dad’s barber scissors. One day I sneaked the scissors out of my dad’s barber kit and started to whack off all my hair that I could reach. I had short arms and a fat head so I could only cut off the front half of my hair. Half of a buzz cut. Looking more like Bozo the clown than a singing cowboy. But it was my Uncle Ruben who first called me Butch and from that point on it seemed to stick. So with that and having a backyard full of chickens becoming a Chicken Whisperer was a natural progression. With glasses and chopped off hair with specs knew I could never be a singing cowboy. So here I am. Whispering to chickens. I should have been Colonel Sanders instead. However East Los Angeles Fried Chicken just doesn’t sound right. And after handling Rhode Island Reds all day; “Finger Licking Good” sounds barfy awful as well.

In the mean time early L A TV was moving beyond mostly test patterns. Watching our little Sears 12-inch black and white television was a challenge. It was like looking at a black and white photograph through wax paper. Some of you might remember. It was in the very early days of L A TV when no significant programming came on the air until early afternoon. So from the time I got up each morning there were only test patterns. Mostly an Indian Chief Feather head dress. Why that, I do not know. Sunday morning was the worst. The worst until a clever guy took advantage of the down time. A man named Cal Worthington and his car dealer in Huntington Park started filling that empty space with old western movies and a car commercial every five minutes or so. The he brought in country bands to entertain the visitors to his dealership early Sunday mornings. And let me remind you he got this early day TV time for almost nothing. The old Cal brought in other entertainment and props. He first had an old junkyard dog named Spot. So he kept mentioning on the air to come see Spot while selling Dodge cars. Then Spot morphed into a kangaroo and later an elephant. Cajoling customers to come see Spot while in the background was a mule or a lama. So he had a bag full of gimmicks. Cal Worthington was most savvy when marketing his car dealership. Again he advertised on mostly free time on Sunday morning TV. What I like about old Cal and his folksy ways is he was from Oklahoma. All of this right here in Southern California. Come see Cal and his dog Spot. What a guy!

“Now back to Tom Mix and his trick riding horse.” Fade to black.