A walk down a 'country' lane

Saturday night.

Flipping channels on the TV.

I stop on Channel 20 -- PAX, the wholesome American values channel.

What grabbed my attention was a lengthy advertisement for a series of country music videos. But this was not any set of country music videos. No, this was a set of country classics. This did not contain any Dixie Chicks, no Faith Hill and certainly no Toby Keith. Instead, there was Johnny Cash, Conway Twitty and the Oak Ridge Boys. This was indeed a selection of classics.

I thought I would just listen to the clip of Cash singing the "Folsom Prison Blues," but I was drawn into the twangy lyrics, the banjo-plucking and slow crooning that I grew up with as Country and Western music on the AM dial as a kid in Ellensburg.

Today I am not a fan of country music, and there is a lot of today's country music that I find deplorable (Toby Keith especially -- someone shoud put a boot in his mouth). But the 1970s and 1980s were decades when Country and Western music thrived, a time when being wholesome meant something, and the values behind the music were real, not just a ploy to divide Red State America from the Left Coast.

There is something intoxicating about the deep bass vocals in Johnny Cash's songs, something amazing to watch Mickey Gilley's hands fly over the piano keys, something delightful to listen to Loretta Lynn's heartfelt experiences.

Ah, yes -- the AM radio (KXLE 1240) provided me with a solid foundation in the Nashville tradition. As tonight's commercial played clip after clip, I recognized them all -- Buck Owens, the Judds, Barbara Mandrell, Dolly Parton, Randy Travis, Reba McEntire, George Jones, George Strait, Tammy Wynette and Merle Haggard.

Much of my country upbringing came from my family's Saturday night TV lineup, which for years included "Hee Haw" and the variety show with Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell sisters (Louise and Irlene).

So it's Saturday night again, and I can't find anything as good as "Hee Haw" on TV. I think TV would be well served to bring back a show like "Hee Haw," with its corny skits and cheesy jokes -- Pickin' and Grinnin' was always my favorite.

Yeah, I admit I have a country upbringing. There are worse skeletons to have in one's closet. I was country when country wasn't cool.

-- Wenatchee, Wash.