RIP; My Walk Away Memories Of Penny "Laverne" Marshall

By Jeffery Mcneil 

As we lay Penny Marshall to rest, I like to say thank you for making America laugh in a time when we need more laughter and happiness. With Penny Marshall's death, I feel a part of my youth has died also. While I didn’t know much about her life her character, Laverne Defazio will always be in my memory.  Her death brought back childhood memories for Laverne and Shirley was launched in 1976 when Gerald Ford was president.  My parents weren’t wealthy but were middle class. My father worked for General Motors which still had a plant in Linden New Jersey thirty miles outside of Manhattan. My parents weren’t wealthy but managed to have material possessions such as large television made by Zenith.  During the mid-seventies before cable television, you had three channels ABC, NBC and CBS that covered everything from news to family programming. Laverne and Shirley came on Tuesday nights right after Happy Days which was a hit show that spun it off.

I loved the show because Milwaukee during that period could be any industrial city in the USA. When I was a child I loved driving in my fathers American made Chrysler down a highway built by Dwight Eisenhower, seeing the Manhattan skyline made with American steel and American labor. All of us whether black, white or native American loved this America because we didn’t have to compete with Latin or Asian immigrants for these jobs. 

What I loved about Laverne and Shirley was they didn’t have to be raunchy to gain millions of viewers. Growing up in New Jersey suburbs everyone could identify with a Carmine Ragusa "The Big Ragu" as well as liberals such as Laverne. Because it was the seventies, there was always arguments about the social changes going on in the country.

It makes me emotional, because when Lavern began her show I was definitely a Reagan Democrat. I grew up in a two parent household, and was opposed to women shirking parental responsibility for careers. I thought women not being devoted to their kids was selfish.. I was devoutly Christian and Patriotic. Hated Leftist radicals such as Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn, I didn’t want to hear the bad things America did, and adored Ronald Reagan. I detested the far left radicals that protested and looked for confrontation, and clashed many of times with the Far Left. 

When Lavern moved her show to California by then I was a teenager. As her show changed America was changing. Reagan tax cuts started unraveling the Middle Class and my father's job moved to China and many times we were one paycheck from eviction, I knew I didn’t want to end like my father, working in a factory so I pursued capitalism, I went from Laverne and Shirley to Gordon Gekko “Wall Street” Money and capitalism. I later moved to Atlantic City and saw life as a dog eat dog world. I saw poverty as a sign of moral failings. And I knew I didn’t want to be living in squalor. 

Truth was this was the generation of Reagan were men were supposed to be tough and showing emotion made you a sissy or Beta male. It wasn’t that I was racist or sexist, I was raised in Lavern’s America where the thought that a woman could become your boss was unfathomable and homosexuality was forbidden and brought shame. Like many old school Democrats abortion and gay rights pulled at the heart strings with Conservative men such as myself. I wasn’t there and wasn’t interested in accepting this. Overtime I met many Republicans and Walkaways that were gay and many even follow me on Facebook and Twitter. 

I attribute Penny Marshall for my evolution. She was a pioneer because many men lmyself included were closed minded about powerful women. Because of her I accept smart competant women leading a business,law firm and maybe the White House. Penny opened doors but rarely bragged about what she achieved which I admire and respect about her. 

As she passes on to the other side 

Thank you for the laughs here on earth !!!