Television is one of the loves of my life. It is not an addiction as it is with some people. There have been times in my life that I would literally go for months without television and dont think I missed anything significant.
My first encounter with television was at the home of a friend and co-worker of my mom's when I was about seven years old. Her friend had a son about my age, and one day after work we were invited over to their house. While the two ladies gathered produce from the home garden, the son and I stayed inside and watched television. The television has a small screen by today's standards. It was basically square but with overly rounded corners. Of course it was black and white and with only an antenea mounted atop the house; and with the closest television stations being about 80 miles away, the recpetion was far from today's high definition. We watched the Howdy Doody Show. When we returned home I tried as best I could to relay the experience to my grandmother who was well into her eighties. Until then our only electronic entertainment has been a small white Arvin AM radio. Every night we would listen to music from Cincinatti or New Orleans. On Saturday nights we would listen to the Grand Old Opra from the Nashville. Days of radio listening were filled with the closest local radio station in Hartwell, GA which presented local news and hours of various types of music. Afternoons were filled with the radio version of soap operas. I grew up with Pepper Young, a radio soap akin to today's "Days of our Lives". I do not recall which of the distant radio stations presented a nightly series of comedy entertainment featuring the likes of "Our Miss Brooks" with Eve Arden and the Jack Benny Show with his lovable black chauffeur Rochester. Who could ever forget the Amos and Andy show featuring the antics of the two black somewhat shady characters always out to beat the system.
In the mid 1950's my mom, my grandmother, and I would go to my Uncle Loyd's house to visit with him and my Aunt Minnie. Minnie would prepare dinner for us usually and we would watch television for couple of hours. It was here that I encountered probably my favorite of all time television shows, I Love Lucy. Even today, I watch reruns of that show that I have seen probably hundreds of times. One of the highlights of my life was to actually ride past Lucille Ball's home in Beverly Hills many years later in 1983. We made the weekly trip to Uncle Loyd's to watch television in my mom's old 1938 Chevy which was about sixteen years old at that time. The trip to Beverly Hills in 1983 was a bit more stylish with my sister-in-law in their relatively new Cadillac Fleetwood Braughm. Some other nightly television shows we would watch at Uncle Loyd's house were December Bride with Spring Byington, The Real McCoys, and the origional Dragnet.
In 1957 when I was about ten years old, we bought our first televsion set. It was a big 21 inch Admiral Floor model. The television repairman made regular trips to our house to keep it going. My afternoons were spent watching Dick Clark and the American Bandstand, You Bet your Life with Groucho Marx, and the Mickey Mouse Club.
It was 1970 that mom finally got a color tv. By then I had left home and moved here in Easley. The next forty years of television is a blur that can be rehashed on TV Land or any of many similar networks the feature the oldies.
Television has come a long way in the past 40 years. Cable service and Internet service gives us hundreds of possibilites of prorams to watch. With today's flat screen television sporting events are better on tv than in person. We can not only watch tv on our tv's but also on iPads and iPhones as well as hundreds of other smart phones and tablets. In our three person household, we have 5 flat screen televisions, 3 iPhones, an iPad, and 4 computers all of which can receive any one of thousands of broadcast possibilites.. Wow.. what a difference from one black and white set that misfunctioned as much as it worked right.
Not only has technology improved but the types of shows have evolved. Censorship is not almost a thing of the past. The subject of programs is as diverse as the universe. I would be neglegent if I did not mention two recent shows. A friend has been after me for months to watch Scandal. At his suggestion I went on Netflix today and watched 4 episodes from the first season. By every stretch of the imagenation, it is one of the most controversal programs ever. That the main character and heroine of the show is as black female who is a professional high ranking person is something that would have been unacceptable 40 years ago. Sex, violence, cultural topics, homosexuality, rape, nudity, politics, and other items which are openly a part of todays culture are dealt with in the same open manner that they are in real life in the 21st centruy. The other program, American Horror Stroy this season deals with witches in a manner as violent and realistic or should I say unrealistic as the Salem witch hunts.
Yes, times have changed and will continue to change as well. We are greatly blessed to live in a time where such wonders are as common as the sand on the beach.
God Bless, good night
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