It was sometime in the early 1980s – after 40 years, I don’t remember exactly when – and my friends and I learned that our local cable company was going to stop carrying one Chicago TV station in favor of another.

Now, we were old horror movie and cable TV fanatics so we were doubly anguished to learn this meant we would lose our weekly broadcasts of “Svengoolie,” the long-running Chicago horror movie program hosted by the ghoul of the same name, played by Rich Koz. Koz had taken over from the original “Svengoolie,” Jerry Bishop, a few years before. Koz’ version of the amiable character – a creature of some kind who hosted old horror flicks from his dungeon – and the show were highlights of our week.

The three (sometimes four or more) of us had the brainstorm of trying to express our appreciation of Sven and his old movies and silly puns by sending him a telegram. (As if this anecdote could be any more pre-internet.)

We sent an email that referenced a joke from another current favorite, Lola Heatherton, a show-biz creature played by Catherine O’Hara on the sketch comedy show “SCTV.”

In our telegram – cue 1914 music – we told Sven how much we would miss him and, quoting Lola, told him, “We want to bear all your children!” It was a phrase Lola would gush to adoring audiences on “SCTV.”

Now Svengoolie has always read viewer letters on his show. He still does to this day.

And, unbelievably, Sven read our telegram, citing us by name, on the very last show of his we would be able to see before our cable ditched his broadcast channel.

Sven did seem a little confused by our out-of-the-blue Lola Heatherton quote. And who could blame him? He even made some comment about not understanding what the heck these people were saying.

Now of course we can watch “Svengoolie” every Saturday night on the national nostalgia channel MeTV. And Koz, forty years after our telegram and 30 years after he returned to the role after a brief break, is still doing it. He’s now accompanied by helpers like Gwengoolie, played by Sarah “Pinup” Palmer.

One thing that hasn’t changed is that Sven and his show still let us wallow in nostalgia – and puns – and in the best way possible: with knowledgeable and fond presentations of classic films. I thought about this recently when I was watching his presentation of “Dracula,” the 1931 original with Bela Lugosi. Sure, you could watch the Universal classic on streaming or disc. But this feels right.

Nostalgia can be a tricky thing. We can’t wallow in it. We have to live for today. Svengoolie gives us the perfect framing for nostalgia.

Thanks, Sven, and thanks, Rich Koz.