Page 4 THE REVERE ADVOCATE – FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2024 “And Jerry Mathers As The Beaver” Remembering TV’s Good ‘Ol Days By Sal Giarratani A s someone who grew up in the ‘50s, I can remember my younger brother, Dominic and I watching lots of television. I still remember when my dad bought our fi rst TV set. It had a round screen, weighed about 50 pounds and we had a total of three channels to watch. On Saturday mornings, it was Rex Trailer, a bunch of cartoons, Fury, Circus Boy and Roy Rogers. Weeknights, the whole family would turn on the TV to watch all those black and white sitcoms or dramas. One of my favorites was “Leave it to Beaver’ starring Jerry Mathers as the Beaver. By the way, I once wrote to Hollywood trying to get his autograph. It came in the mail a few weeks later. Back at the beginning of August, I read a piece in the Advocate that advertised that Jerry Mathers would be showing up at Phil Castinetti’s Sportsworld store in Saugus The line outside was in a great mood as everyone waited to get inside to talk with “The Beaver” star Jerry Mathers. (Courtesy photos) up on Route 1. I marked my calendar, When the day Sunday, August 25, I drove up to the place. A large line of folks were lined up outside waiting to get inside to see the Beaver. Most of the folks were around my age since the TV series ran from 1957 to 1963. My brother identifi ed as the Beaver and I did likewise with older brother Wally. In real life though, I was the exact same age as Mathers. I even got a great photo taken of me with Jerry Mathers Jerry Mathers, Tv’s The Beaver, with fan, Sal Giarratani at Sportsworld. RON’S OIL Call For PRICE MELROSE, MA 02176 NEW CUSTOMER’S WELCOME ACCEPTING VISA, MASTERCARD & DISCOVER (781) 397-1930 OR (781) 662-8884 100 GALLON MINIMUM Bruce Singer, Phil Castinetti, his son, Cory and Rita Singer. Jerry Mathers with Bruce Singer and his mom, Rita Singer, who was the fi rst woman elected to the Revere City Council and served from 1976-1993. taken by my friend Bruce Singer who emailed it over to me. Amazingly there were lots of old dudes like me in line because “Leave it to Beaver” was a part of so many kids’ lives back then. Now all these ‘50s and ‘60s kids are a bunch of ever-growing older guys and gals like me. Happy to go back in time to when l life felt so much simpler then. We don’t often get a chance to get inside a time machine and go back but that was how I felt up at Phil’s place on August 25. By the way, I loved Sportsworld, too. I wish my mother never gave away the baseball card collection I had to a little kid next door. Who knows how much some of those cards would be worth today. By the way, Phil is a 1974 graduate of Revere High School which meant he got to see this iconic TV series in repeats, I got to watch them when the show was still running new episodes. Well, I got to take meeting Jerry Mathers in person off my bucket list. However, my bucket still feels pretty heavy and the list still long. Subscribe to the www.advocatenews.net Advocate Online! Your Local News in 6 Languages! .advo news.net
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