Hello Jenny

I can't imagine that too many people would be able to make the connection between the photo, which I took at Wheelers Maple Pancake House and Sugar Camp and my title, "Hello Jenny." You'd have had to be watching television back in the fifties in order to know, and even then you very well might not make the connection.

I am referring to a program called Lassie. Aside from the gorgeous and extremely intelligent collie, the show featured a boy named Jeff who lived on a farm with his mother and grandfather. Their link to the rest of their community was Jenny, who was the operator on the other end of the phone.  

Note: when Jeff got too old, they re-invented the show with another cast, including a boy called Timmy. To me, however, it was never the real "Lassie" show.

Actually, I forgot that the operator's name was Jenny and was thinking, Millie, but since everything about everything is on this interwebby thingie, a search yielded the correct name within seconds. It actually came up in the first two hits without me even having to open the sites although, of course, I did click.

The search also led me to an ancient Lassie episode on YouTube called Party Line, in which the telephone and the operator figure prominently. In fact the program ends with a birthday party for Jenny, who had been feeling neglected and unappreciated until then.

Note: the whole Party Line episode can be viewed in the three YouTube clips embedded below.

Jenny was played by Florence Lake. Her telephone operator role in Lassie was her biggest, but she also appeared on one episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show as Lou Grant's date (more on Wikipedia). You can also find more about the Lassie TV show on Wikipedia.

All that minutiae aside, how do you like the photo? :)