By LEE SCOTT
On a recent road trip with my spouse, we discovered the Johnny Carson channel on Sirius Radio.
Being an old Johnny fan, I was thrilled to listen to some of the old monologues again.
My parents watched the show when I was young, and I even got to see him in California back in the 1980s. So, I was excited to hear him again.
After a few hours of driving, we commented on how easy the drive was just listening to him. Talk about entertainment. It wasn’t only his monologues, but it was the people he was interviewing too.
He always interviewed major stars like Jimmy Stewart, Henry Fonda, and Elizabeth Taylor. He also had on comedians like Jerry Seinfeld, Joan Rivers and George Carlin. Then there were the animal spots and talented children interviews. It was a real variety show.
We noticed how fun it was to laugh at good old-fashioned humor. It was not mean-spirited. It was just plain entertainment.
After the trip, I had lunch with three girlfriends who I had not spent much time with over the summer. I was telling them about the show and told them some of the jokes I heard.
Well, that is when we started. Mind you, there was no alcohol involved here, but we got to laughing and carrying on with other stories that before you knew it, two hours had passed.
That same evening, I started getting texts from my three sisters about something that happened to the youngest the day before. Well before you know it, I was on another laughing spree. I could not type on my phone, because I was crying so hard.
Later, while brushing my teeth I started to laugh again, and my husband came into the bathroom wondering about the strange sounds I was making.
“You scared me!” he said.
When I finally got control, I explained my laughter and he responded, “You had to be there.”
It’s true. There are some stories shared by siblings, people you have known all your life, that are hard to explain to other people.
Needless to say, I have laughter on my mind now. How wonderful to spend hours with people just laughing and enjoying life. When I looked up laughter on a search engine, I found articles like, “The natural high of laughter” from Psychology Today. Evidently, laughter releases a neurotransmitter – dopamine – which serves as a reward for the brain.
I am not sure if my hours with Johnny Carson started my all-day laughing spell.
But I do know that I am reminded that laughter truly is the best medicine, and maybe we all need to get more of it in our lives.
Thanks, Johnny!
