As I walked out on my front porch this morning I was greeted by bright sunlight and 19°F temperature. I took the time to smile at the sun and gaze at the long shadows produced by the many trees on the ground. I then quickly turned around and went back into the house and started my daily routine.
My routine during the cold weather is to first get the living room fire started. I have wood stacked outside on the back porch and so I quickly get those pieces that I think will catch on fire most quickly and take them inside the house. I then turn on my coffee maker and grab the Pop Tart out of the cabinet to place it into the toaster. I stacked the wood inside the fireplace and start the fire, hopefully on the first try. I then go back to the blog room and turn on the electric fireplace, pet the two large dogs and turn on the blog room TV. I then go back to the kitchen get myself a cup of coffee and grab my Pop Tart. I go to the blog room again to be greeted by the two large dogs; they seem to be filled with great excitement every morning. After taking the time to pet the dogs so they will calm down I sit in my easy chair and grabbed the remote and select two news programs to watch. I will spend an hour or so watching the news by flipping back and forth between the two stations. With today and tomorrow being so cold I have decided not to go to the shop and work on my truck and therefore will find other ways to keep busy, mostly watching television.
What did they do before television? I can only guess. In my lifetime there has always been television. In my very first years on this earth my parents and I lived on a farm in Martinsville Indiana. I can remember the excitement that my grandparents and parents showed when the first black and white 13 inch screen television was placed in the living room. I have vague memories of just sitting with my parents and listening to a radio before the TV. During those years there were but a few channels that you could receive out in the country and on those channels there were very few shows to pick from. Even back then there were several news programs on the air. If I was good and my parents were in a good mood, I was allowed to watch some morning shows. I can remember watching Howdy Doody and another show that involved a talking star. My parents even sent off for a clear plastic sheet that they could put over the TV screen. There was a portion of the talking star show that would put dots on the screen and with that plastic cover over your television screen you could use a special marker to connect the dots and the mysterious picture would appear. I did sit and watch TV with my family who seem to enjoy variety shows that were hosted by the comedians of the day. There was even a daily show where everyone got hit in the face with a pie.
The next big exciting moment was when the television went from black and white to color. I can remember going to a girlfriend’s house her family had a 25 inch color console TV. Those TV consoles had to weigh several hundred pounds and became a large piece of furniture in the living room. The show I remember the most was Bonanza. And I faithfully watched the wide world of sports, which was the first time I ever watched snow skiing. During those years there were more and more television programs and a few more channels. There were a few families that had remote controls, but in my family whoever dad and mom selected was the remote control and they got up and turned the dial for the channels. The dial had a 13 channel selection, but there were only five channels working at that time. There was also a second dial for UHF channels, the shows are usually in black and white and I would say had a PBS theme. The best way to improve your reception was to go up to the antenna on the roof and add a reception booster to the two line antenna feed. The antenna wire ran loosely from the antenna down to a window at the house and since it was flat you could close the window on the antenna wire without breaking it. Then the antenna wire ran to the only TV in the house. That was another thing, most homes could only afford one television. During the morning hours and through lunch hours usually mom was in charge of the TV, if it was watched at all. That is when I first heard of the program General Hospital. My mom watches that show faithfully until year she passed away. But if you were good and in the good graces of mom, you could turn on the TV and watch the afternoon cartoon shows. There was even a time when I was in grade school, that I would come home from school at lunch and watch the World Series on TV. It was during the years that the New York Yankees and the LA Dodgers played in the World Series. I live close to my school so I would run home and my mom would have a TV tray sitting in front of the TV with lunch on it waiting for my arrival. I would watch as much of the game you as you can in less than an hour and run back to school.
It seemed that in the 1950s and 60s the news broadcasters were very serious. There was no laughing or bantering around by multi-speakers on the news. I believe in the beginning the reporting was solely about the story and not about any political agenda the TV station may have. Unfortunately during those years it seemed that every news man and every male character in ever show smoke cigarettes. It was almost as if you didn’t smoke you were not a man. And if you did smoke you did not use a filter and there was no menthol that was acceptable, if you were a man. It seemed that most of the commercials on the TV were sponsored by tobacco companies, beer companies and soap detergent companies. After color came to TV I was shocked to find out how white my shirt could be and bright my colors could be if I use the right detergent, I think it was Tide.
The next big move in television was the flat screen. Although the initial cost of such a TV was out of reach for most of us, they started showing up in businesses. I was amazed when I went to a sports bar and found that there were three flat screen TVs showing three different channels of the same time. It was during that time the cable TV was invented and so now every new house were plumbed with TV cable so that you could have a television in every room of the house. I thought the most inventive ones had TV outlets in the kitchen and the bathroom. It wasn’t long after that companies like DIRECTV emerged with the capability of watching TV with the help of the satellite. Then television sets started to grow the size of the screen, they also started to become smaller and more connected to a computer. I will speak about computers in my life in a different blog. I believe during this time with my choices growing I began watching a lot more television. During the years that I went to work I would only gaze at television in the morning to see what the weather was like for the day. I did not see the television again until late at night. And then with the use of the TV Guide a decision would be made as to which shows we would watch. During those years you had the time your trip to the bathroom to coincide with the length of a commercial. There was no recording during those years and so you were limited to picking one show to watch and hoped that no one beat you to the bathroom during the commercial.
The next exciting move in television was the recorder. My first experience with such a device was called TIVO. With more and more channels appearing for my selection I found the recorder help me watch one program and record another one of the same time. It always seemed to me in the past that the best shows on TV were on at the same time but on different channels. The TV show wars go on today but I have a better chance of watching my choices with the use of the recorder. It took a while for me to understand this but I no longer had to rush to the bathroom during commercials. I could just hit the hold button and take my time to go the bathroom, go by the kitchen and say hello to my wife before returning to my chair in front of the television. If there was a football game on during the time that I was at work, I could record it and watch it later. I would usually ask others not to talk to me about the game as I was going to watch it later. During the times that I was sick, which were very few, it seemed that I spent most of the day watching all the TV shows. Unfortunately they were filled with info commercials. And eventually I found a way to handle that. Just record the show and then when watching later and fast-forward through the commercials.
The price of a television is now so affordable I have three in the house and one in the shop. Two of them have recorders ( one for me and one for my wife) and the other two do not. I find myself watching the news in the morning, checking the weather during the day and watching my recorded shows at night. With all the different available channels I am now able to pick a few channels that follow my interests. For example, I can watch the velocity channel or the national geographic channel. Although there are few shows on a major national channels that I will watch or record I find the off channels more rewarding as to the information I receive.
All in all the television and the shows that it brings to us has changed my life. In some respects I get to use it as a tool. I can watch the weather and be I can be prepared for the day. I can watch some mindless TV show that makes the bad times good and affords me the opportunity just to space out. Like most men I enjoy my sports channels. During the month of January I try to watch as many football games, playoff games as possible. I don’t know how many bowl games there are, but it’s enough to fill a week of programming. And of course one of the big shows is the Super Bowl. Most people cannot afford the price of a ticket or the travel costs to go to the Super Bowl. But all of us, whether it’s in the house or at a public place like a sports bar, can enjoy the game. Of course you need to have a recorder because you do not want to miss the commercials during the Super Bowl. And unless you have a TV in the bathroom you would have to stay in front television for the many hours of the game.
This takes me back to my original thought, what did they do? Probably most families worked from sun up to sun down and were so tired after eating dinner they chatted and went to bed. I would imagine the family members were closer then and the joy of being together was heartfelt. Today if the family does eat dinner together at the dinner table there is usually a major dispersal after dinner to the different rooms that have TV.
I really don’t know what they did before TV and that this point is not important enough for me to find out. I will enjoy the blessings of my time on this earth. And I look forward to the future with great expectations of the use of things that have yet to come.
Pops
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