So, now I feel old.

Every weekend the Decades TV Network plays marathons of, usually, ancient television shows. A couple of weeks ago they played, “Hawaiian Eye,” that aired in the late 50’s and early 60’s. It was kind of this mythical piece of pop culture to me when I was a child. My parents used to talk about, but I never saw it.

So, it was humorous when I tuned into Decades and discovered it was being featured. It was kind of a private eye story based in an Hawaiian hotel. Robert Conrad co-starred. He later starred in the TV show, “Wild Wild West,” which became the inspiration for the dreadful Will Smith film of the same name. Heh, now, Smith is infamous for the Oscar Slap. Now, he’s more infamous than I am. That’s kind of a personal joke.

It’s fun to switch on the TV on Saturdays, tune into Decades and try and figure out what show is the marathon feature. Usually, they are shows I never saw a single episode of.

Today I clicked on the TV and this dark haired actor’s face appeared. He looked familiar, the show had a familiar vibe, but I couldn’t place it in my memory.

What I was struck by was the immediate recognition that it was made in the 1990’s. Oh, God, now that decade has a distinct style and cultural expressions that are unique to the 90’s—just like the 80’s, 70’s, and 60’s. Boy, did that make me feel old.

That means the relics from that decade have been gone long enough to become just that, relics. I was in my 30’s then. I miss my 30’s.

The television show I had clicked on turned out to be, “The Pretender.” I think it was on NBC, and I only saw it a few times. It was kind of humorous, and employed that conspiracy/shady, secret entity theme that was popular in the 90’s. Think: “The X-Files,”—a show we watched religiously, and “Nowhere Man.” “Nowhere Man,” was another Chris Carter show. It wasn’t attracting many viewers, so it got axed. It was filmed just outside of Portland, and crew members used to get coffee at the Coffee People I worked in, on NW 23rd. One day a crew member and I started talking about the show and how it was going, “nowhere, man.” The show went away soon after that conversation. It was kind of sad.

The premise of, “The Pretender,” is that this young boy, Jerod, was abducted from his family because of his rumored unusual abilities. He was taken to a secret facility in Blue Cove, Delaware, where he was raised and studied and his usually high intelligence was trained for nefarious tasks. However, Jerod had retained a good part of his moral spirit. I guess he was a Pisces or Aquarius. Lol. Actually, I looked up the show and learned the actor who played Jerod, Michael T. Weiss, was born on 2/2, making him Aquarius. That’s kind of funny. Thus, as an adult, Jerod escaped this facility and went on the lamb. His small band of handlers began their pursuit, constantly keeping Jerod looking over his shoulder, and expertly evading capture.

He becomes a bit of an avenging angel/ karma-leveling mechanism. As I watch it now, I wonder why I didn’t watch it much in its production days. It was probably on after 10 pm, when I’d usually hoped to be snoozing for the barista job that got me out of bed at 4 am.

I sit in my livingroom watching television characters talk on flip phones that have antennas. They drive cars that were bridging the gap between gas guzzlers to a more environmentally-friendly style, and have then-modern computer monitors that now look big, boxy and utilitarian. I laugh at the use of floppy discs, and re-experience walking in downtown Portland parks carrying a hot mocha in my Coffee People Road Tour mug, getting lost in the three-story Powell’s City of Books, or hiking in 5,000 acre Forest Park. These were great experiences, and now great memories. I just wish they felt less distant.

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All photos are of my television screen, taken tonight 4/23/2022.