ACTRESS FLORENCE HENDERSON

On Thursday night, just after many Americans had gathered with family and friends for Thanksgiving, we learned we'd lost actress Florence Henderson, who mothered an entire generation as Carol Brady on "The Brady Bunch."
We knew it was real when her TV daughter, Marcia, aka actress Maureen McCormick, bade her farewell online.
Kids of the 2000s may never understand the unending love so many who grew up in the 1970s and 1980s had for "Brady Bunch" reruns.
As a kid, I wished I could change my name to "Cindy" after the third Brady daughter, the "youngest one in curls." As an adult, I made a pilgrimage to the Brady house in Studio City, California. I grew up in a stable, solid family with six siblings of my own, but the way the Bradys, so close in age, interacted with each other was to be envied.
Sure, "The Brady Bunch" could be as corny as Kansas in August, but there was a genuine feel to it. Maybe that was partly because of where the world was in 1969 when the show debuted. Outside the edges of the TV, we were battered by Vietnam and a changing society, but inside, the biggest problem was Bobby opening an umbrella and tearing through the roof of Greg's convertible.
Florence Henderson was a huge part of the show's lasting legacy. On screen and off, she played the mom America needed when we needed her. Like so many we've lost this year, she can't be replaced, only remembered. I'd like to remember her -- and her show -- with five science and technology lessons "The Brady Bunch" taught me.

1. "Mom always said, don't play ball in the house."

If Peter Brady had understood gravity a little better, maybe he wouldn't have tried to intercept Greg's wastebasket free throw when they were upstairs and the bedroom door was open and the open stairway led right to Carol's favorite vase. Balls bounce downwards, Peter. Physics is one thing, but it was maternal psychology where Carol excelled, especially when she let all the other innocent kids confess, then told guilt-ridden Peter his job was to assign them punishments.