You might be done with breakfast by the time Channel 8 signed on, 56 years ago

Until July of 1962, La Crosse’s only TV station at the time, WKBT, waited until 8:30 in the morning to sign on for the day.  But that July, Channel 8 moved the sign-on time up to 7:30, so it could carry “Captain Kangaroo” at 8:00.  The Captain’s show had already been a popular program for seven years.

“To Tell the Truth” had just become a daytime game show on Channel 8 that summer, featuring different panelists than on the nighttime version.  The show came on at 2 p.m., just after “Art Linkletter’s House Party.”

Live television from Europe was being seen in the U.S. for the first time, because of the satellite Telstar.  Men were already in space, but Sparta’s Deke Slayton would not be among them in 1962.  Slayton was supposed to become the second American to orbit the earth.  However, a heart irregularity got Slayton removed from the solo Mercury flights.  NASA said Slayton might be considered for a two-man or three-man crew in the future.  Deke was back home that summer to go fishing.

New businesses attracting customers in the area included the Holiday Lanes bowling alley near the Holiday Inn, and the Bell Discount Store on the Causeway.  That was 56 years ago, 1962, yesterday in La Crosse.