The Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon

Jerry berates his band leader on this year's telethon.

The Jerry Lewis MDA telethon has been a part of my Labor Day Weekend since my early childhood. The funny part of that is that my mom never liked Jerry Lewis. (So why did she have the telethon on every TV?)

Our Labor Days were literally that - hard labor. We would scrub the windows, remove the screens, clean our bedrooms, etc. Kind of like a "fall cleaning" spree in one day - right before school would resume.

Over the years, I have tried to catch bits and pieces of the telethon - which is 20 hours long. In Omaha, though, the local affiliate no longer shows the start on Sunday night - choosing instead to begin coverage at 7 a.m. So those marathon sessions of pleading with people to pick up the phone and pledge at 2 and 3 a.m. are gone.

Also gone - this year - were the strains of "What The World Needs Now Is Love" that used to accompany the "tote" board. That was my favorite part.

Other favorite memories of the telethon include: staying up all night in 1979 to watch all 20 hours (I ended up taking a nap in the afternoon); making a hole-in-one at the fishbowl at Crossroads to win a case of 7-Up in 1980; Dr. San Guinary and his appearances; taking the girls to the fishbowl in Ralston (2001?).

This year - like the past three - I rode my bike out to the fishbowl. This year it was in the parking lot of a grocery store at 108th & Maple. I saw Ryan McPike and Bob MacDonald - two former co-workers of mine at KMTV. I also donated a dollar in each of the girls' names.

The beauty of the telethon these days is YouTube. I can catch all the highlights - and lowlights - online. So the snippets of it I caught in my hotel room in Greenville (which DID show the very start and all-night coverage), really didn't have me missing anything.

Check out this link to watch all the gaffes and wise-cracks and politically-incorrect jokes Jerry did on this year's telethon.