New Fangled Gadget

I remember when Dad came in and had them bring in the new TV, we all gathered around it. I was still doing the "radio" thing myself and was so avid in doing so that I think today this love of "listening" instead of "watching" gave me a chance to use my brain and dream up visions of what I was listening to. I loved lying in the floor near the "voice box" and as the words entered my ears, my brain started working overtime for I left my old floor and almost crossed over into the radio itself, making myself a part of what was going on. Honestly, I was good at that, I loved making myself come to life in what was happening at that given moment.

With that said, we all waited for the TV to be hooked up. I think we watched the Ed Sullivan show. By the time it was hooked up, we had a good audience. Our family members seemed interested but not carried away by it. I lived in a house of old timers who didn't cater too much to "new fangled" gadgets, as Granny would say. It was in black and white and had a pretty cabinet to it that you could shut when not in use. Later, Daddy got tired of that big "thang with such a little screen" that he traded it in on another model and this one sat on a pedestal that came up from the floor. It was odd looking but didn't take up the space the other one did. And, by that time they were coming up with pieces of plastic one could drape over the picture tube and you could have color. Dad chose green and believe you me it was odd sitting there looking at green people.

One evening we were watching Ed Sullivan and he had on a Bolshovic (sp) type of show where according to Granny, "them hussies hiking up their skirts and showing their drawers, or what they had on twern't drawers but "scanties" and jus' take a gander at that man holding that woman's butt in his hand, lifting her up over his head, reckon he gets to look a-plenty. Turn that evil thang off, Howard, turn it off now, these youngans don't need to see such to-dos as this." It really was a beautiful ballet number but she saw it with her eyes and I saw it with mine. We shore lived in two different worlds, I reckon.

The news traveled up the holler and all over Big Bottom, "Howard bought him a TV". Well, here come the kids from all over and they would sit out on the porch and watch through the door, then Dad would finally get up and invite them in to watch this or that only if they behaved. Behaved they did, and it was a pattern that every evening here they would come ready to watch tv.

The little screen got larger as time passed, I grew up, leaving my old radio behind, to watch the TV. Back then, there were good programs that you didn't have to worry about your children learning how to kill, rape, rob, etc. In fact, some of the early programs, did a good job of teaching my children good stuff. I have gotten much older, TV has progressed to a point where I rarely find anything that will keep me glued to its tube, and when my grands and great-grands are around I have to keep on my toes to see they don't see a bare butt or a lot of expletives. TV is still teaching its way, but nothing it teaches is worth a plugged nickle.