Dad – Batman and Cornbread

  “Come on, Son. The new Batman TV show is going to start soon,” my dad shouted from the kitchen. I was so excited. My dad had been telling me about this new superhero show for weeks. I loved superhero shows. Superman and The Flash were my two favorites. Superman could fly faster than a speeding bullet and leap tall buildings. I didn’t understand how someone could be a superhero without any superpowers. My dad explained that Batman was super smart, clever and had neat inventions like the Batmobile. I ran from my room leaving G.I. Joe to fight his own battles as I slid into my favorite place in front of the TV.

My dad was a carpet guy, coming from a long line of carpet peddlers. His dad, Grampa Charlie, owned the largest carpet and rug business in Omaha, Nebraska called “Murnan Rug.” This meant that we always had the most luxurious wall-to-wall carpet in our house. This latest carpet edition was a beautiful slate colored plush pile fabric that could support a bear. Add this plush pile to a full inch of padding and the carpet would envelop your feet as you walked, leaving footprints like walking on a sandy beach. My dad would always say that padding was the most important part of carpeting, and he lived what he preached! I settled into my favorite spot in the living room like a robin in a newly made nest. 

I yelled to my dad, “What channel is the new show on?” 

“Son, I think it’s channel 4, but look it up in the TV Guide to make sure. The guide is on my chair, unless Mom threw it away with the morning paper today,” my dad responded. Luckily, I found the TV Guide under the chair and looked up Wednesday. 

“Yep, It’s channel 4 Dad,” I replied. 

“Okay, Son, remember that you have to point the TV rabbit ears up and to the left, towards downtown Seattle for the best reception.”

Springing up from my carpeted nest, I quickly changed the channel dial to 4. Another perk from my dad being in the home furnishing business is that we were always getting cool appliances. Our latest new gadget was a “huge” 21-inch color TV, a first on the block and a rarity for 1966. It also was so strange that the TV dial had 13 channels. We only had 3 channels to watch, why would the dial have 13? Who could imagine having 13 channels to watch? 

The channel selector was on 4 and the TV rabbit ears were pointing towards Seattle, we were ready to go! I snuggled into my favorite spot. 

“Dad, how much time before Batman starts?” 

“Son, it’s 7:25pm so 5 minutes before the show starts.” I got to thinking that I ought to phone my best friend Mike and remind him to watch Batman. I would normally invite Mike over to watch the program, but it was a school night and Sister Mead gave us a lot of homework that was due the next day. I wanted to avoid the fury of Sister Mead and the possibility of the ruler on the back of my hand at all costs!

I found the phone on the table and unwound the long extension cord to reach the couch. Our new phone had nice large finger holes that made rotary dialing so much easier. Unbelievable as it sounds, my dad said that in the next couple of years, we would have push button phones instead of rotary dials. But for now, I “dialed” LA3-7789. After a few rings the phone was answered.

“Hey Mike, the new Batman show is starting in 5 minutes, are you going to watch it?”

“Hi Dan! I sure am, with my brother Chip. It sounds like a really neat show!” Mike replied.

“Okay great, we can talk about it tomorrow at recess.” I hung up the phone and raveled the long extension cord back into the next room. Then I smelled it, the unmistakable aroma of cornbread muffins in the oven! My dad was the ultimate king of after dinner baking. His favorite was making Jiffy cornbread muffins. Singing to the tune of Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” he would work his cornbread magic conjuring up 12 perfect muffins. 

I was a little surprised that he was in the kitchen this early as we had finished dinner only an hour and a half ago. Tonight, Mom made my favorite home cooked meal; meatloaf, mashed potatoes and corn. We were a good Nebraska family, anything with a green shade rarely made an appearance at our dinner table. Out of the oven the muffins would come with just the right combination of crusty top and a moist middle. Muffins cut in half with lots of butter and honey was my favorite way to eat cornbread. But dad’s favorite style was warm crumbled muffins in a bowl with milk and sugar. I gotta say, as the years went by, I became a convert to this way of eating my cornbread.

My dad was a contrast of personalities with a huge loving heart buried beneath layers of pressurized granite in the form of 1960’s stoic masculinity. An Irishman at heart, he seemed much larger than his 5’9 and 190lb frame. His bald head and firm jaw highlighted his tough brown eyes giving away a hint of his Golden Glove boxing championships of the past. And the man could YELL like nobody’s business! The type of yelling that in mere seconds would wake you from a deep sleep to fearfully clinging to the ceiling. As the years went by, as weird as it may sound, I came to understand that the “YELL” was the love for his family escaping his heart and making its way through the cracks of his granite barriers. 

With the muffins out of the oven the entire house smelled delicious and comfy.

Dad yelled, “Son, get the TV trays setup so we can watch the show while we eat our cornbread.” Wow, I thought, this must be a special night to get the TV trays out. Usually, the TV trays were limited to TV dinner night. My favorite TV dinner was Swanson’s Hungry Man Salisbury Steak with tater tots and peas. The kicker to this meal was that it came with a big square of apple cobbler that tasted amazing right out of the foil tray. The peas and carrots went under the TV tray to Rusty, our 110lb yellow lab who was a canine garbage disposal. He came in very handy at dinner time.

I grabbed two TV trays from behind the bookcase and set one up in front of my dad’s chair and one up in front of the couch. Dad and I filled the TV trays with cornbread just as the theme song to the new Batman program began. The catchy theme song caught our attention as we saw the Bat Signal for the first time. Batman and Robin slid down the Bat Pole down into the Batcave and raced to the Batmobile. Off rocketed the dynamic duo through the Bat Tunnel to save Gotham City against dastardly arch criminals to the likes of the Joker, Penguin, and the Riddler. Dad and I were hooked! A short 30 minutes later the show was coming to an exciting end and we heard those famous Bat words, “SEE YOU NEXT WEEK – SAME BAT TIME – SAME BAT CHANNEL!”

For the next three years on Wednesday evenings at 7:30pm, Dad in his comfy leather chair and I tucked away in the warm weave of polyester, enjoyed our cornbread muffins while watching Batman and his sidekick Robin save the world. Little did I know that almost 60 years later, I would still remember those enduring Wednesday nights with my dad, Batman and cornbread.