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- Story Listed as: True Life For Adults
- Theme: Friendship & Family
- Subject: Biography / Autobiography
- Published: 10/13/2020
Memory lane via TV sets...
Born 1951, M, from Wilmington NC, United States.jpeg)
Author's Note: Color TV did not become a regular part of Television Viewing until I was in High School...and even then, most shows were Black and White. It wasn't until 1971, that almost all shows were in Color. Antennas were not only on the Roofs of almost every house, but Rabbit Ears were on the TV itself. Yep. Some times with extra aluminum foil wrapped around them.
Many a young person in my day, had to hold the extended Rabbit Ear Antenna to get better reception. A lot of us, from big families, were the designated "Rabbit Ear Holder" and we learned to watch TV from an angle. LOL There were no Flat Screen TVs. and the old Cathode Ray Tubes Screens were a young Space Nut's delight. They looked so high tech, even broken, that you used them as props in your cardboard Space Ship, or your Mad Scientist lab. LOL
I can't even name all the TV shows that folks regular watched, but many folks watched the same shows...so everyone had something to talk about. There were only three channels (Yes, that is correct, and not a typo) and they all went off the air by Ten in the Evening. Asking to stay up to watch something that was on after 8 PM was every Grade School Students lament.
So here goes, a trip down Memory Lane, inspired because I saw an old Motorola TV set picture...and it took me on the High Speed Ramp back to my childhood. A day when kids couldn't wait to get outside...unlike today when kids can't wait to get inside. But inside was TV...so sometimes...it was worth going inside...even if it wasn't raining. LOL
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Any of these names ring a bell? Admiral? Philco? GE? Motorola? Zenith? Emerson? HotPoint? RCA/Victor? And about a couple dozen more. If you recognize any of them, you know they were TV sets. Yep. Everything from giant box like things, to portable ones with handles, and the ultra expensive entertainment centers. Those things qualified as “Furniture”.
The Entertainment Center ones had a TV, a Record Player that could play “Hi-Fidelity”, and a radio that could even get overseas stations. And sometimes, a flip out, or flip open…Bar. Yep. Complete with shot glasses, brandi sniffers, and room for three or four bottles of “top shelf” products.
Not many people had a color TV when I was a kid. Heck, most shows were in Black and White until 1965. That was the year NBC decided to make a whole lot of their shows in color. Many shows remained in Black and White - especially the Daytime Soaps and things like: I dream of Genie. The famous Christmas Eve trip around the moon, narrated by Walter Cronkite - was in Black and White…and that was 1968. (I think, my memory sucks sometimes).
A lot of the Color TV’s had to have the color set by a bunch of knobs, upping the green, or red to get some semblance of a “natural color”. I was in some homes where I swear the Dad or Mom were colorblind. The shows were either so green you could get seasick just watching. Or…they were so red, it looked like a bunch of Irish Fair Skinned red heads walked through the Sahara …naked. LOL
I remember watching Bonanza, which was broadcast in Color by NBC. It was a gimmick to sell color TV sets, which were way way way more expensive than Black and White TV’s…and their price never came down like Black and White TV’s did.
There were lots of TV repair shops when I was a kid. Vacuum tubes would blow. Or the Screen would not work right. The color might be off …scaled permanently to green or red. But for about fifteen or so years, tubes from old Televisions served us young boys to make our Science Fiction “Radios”, or Mad Scientist sets, or be the heart of our cardboard Rockets…rockets made out of old refrigerator boxes, where three or four little eight to ten year olds could fit in.
It was a blast. The teenagers used the record player more than the TV…except for American Bandstand. Remember the little feet that you put on the floor to learn the latest dance steps? The older guys listened to the Radio. My grandfather used to put the Indians games on his TV, but with no sound. He preferred the play by play announcers on radio…so did my Uncles. And that was a pretty cool way to watch sports.
Saturday morning was all kids. And Disney had Sunday night for the Family, and weekdays they had the Mickey Mouse Club. And I had a crush on Annette Funicello …so I would watch once in a while. M I C….K E Y….M O U S E. Y? Because we like you. LOL
It was a different time. News was just fifteen minutes. And most stations went off the air at Ten PM. And then…well, everything changed. Now? Sheesh. I don’t know, maybe ten thousand channels. 24 hours NEWS, and all the YouTube channels probably are approaching the millions. Information is everywhere…and knowledge is conspicuously absent. Unless it is a DIY video, or the Khan Academy for Academics.
I am not sure how much imagination you need to play in the Virtual World the kids live in…but I bet they didn’t use burned out Vacuum Tubes, defunct capacitors, and transistors as big as a pocket radio to build their Space ships in old cardboard boxes. I am glad I did.
So watch for Captain Video, Captain Kangaroo, Howdy Doody and Clairibel, the Honeymooners, I love Lucy, and Ozzie and Harriet, and about a 100 other shows. Rifleman anyone? Or Maverick? Or Paladin? The Twilight Zone, and Texas Star Theater for the truly erudite. It was a time long gone now.
Smiles, Kevin
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