Thank you Denise of Girlie on the Edges Blog for providing a place to link my Six Sentence Stories - Station as well as a place to study writing styles, and explore the creativity of other writers. I might add that these writers are a very inclusive group, so if you are a beginner, have written and published your own books or are somewhere in between you are welcome. Click the link and read the other stories and comments and you will see what I mean.
Although the door was never closed between the kitchen and the dining room, in order to allow the warm air from the wood stove to flow among the rooms of the home in the winter and the cool breezes to flow freely through the screened windows of the small home in the summer, much to the surprise of the kids there was now a small television set atop the sewing machine cabinet which had been scooted into the doorway.
In the latter part of 1952 the state only had one television station and while some people were starting to buy televisions, the family was on a tight budget so being able to watch the upcoming presidential election was out of the question, that is until someone loaned them a small 17” set for the occasion.
The family positioned the kitchen table and chairs closer to the doorway in order to see the gray screen as the man of the house fiddled with the extendable rabbit ears spread out in a broad vee from the top of the set as black and white lines flickered across the screen accompanied by squeaks and squawks making it difficult to hear what the speakers were saying.
After moving the rabbit ears every which direction the picture finally came into view and it was possible to hear clearly what was being said, at least most of the time.
Watching television again in their own home wouldn’t be a reality until four years after this eventful historic day, but it was an introduction for the kids as to the process of electing the president of the United States of America and was a day to remember.
Until that election year the parents had both been registered with the same party, but this was the beginning of a new era, at least for one of them.
Good six. I used to watch it all with my dad, these days I can't stomach it.
ReplyDeleteThanks. There is quite a lot to stomach. :-/
DeleteI remember my father adjusting such a TV antenna years ago and his warning that I not touch it.
ReplyDeleteIt didn't take much of a touch either to wipe out the image on the screen. :-)
Delete...and, as times progressed, we discovered the miracle of aluminum foil... the better to capture the signals from the air.
ReplyDeleteI don't remember using aluminum foil, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen at our house. HaHa
DeleteSomewhere out in the storage area, there is an old black and white TV with an antenna. So many memories.
ReplyDeleteIt is funny how long we can hang on to those old items, although that is one thing we didn't keep.
DeleteI like how the open doorway between the two rooms becomes the first 'spot' for the introduction of a TV set, like already the TV was imposing itself on family routine.
ReplyDeleteMy first set when I moved out of home at 19 was a black and white portable with rabbit ears as you mention lol. There were plenty of modern colour sets available at the time, but it was all I could afford back then.
I like this nostalgic six :)
Ford, TVTA
HaHa and if the TV had known that it really would intrude in the lives of individuals and families given half a chance maybe it wouldn't have got past the flickering blurry line.
DeleteI am glad you enjoyed this nostalgic six.
I remember watching the black and white and imagining what colors the pretty dresses were. When we got color it was like WOW!! There used to be a way you could revert back to color and I would do that just to see what the clothing looked like in black and white as compared to color. I think the way you did it was by rotating the dial around the channel turner; the dial was the one to tune it in for colors and such. Oh and no remote control! So, if you were lazy you watched shows you didn't even want to watch. Not that it ever happened to me. ;)
ReplyDeleteHow interesting. I didn't know that there was a way to revert back to the black and white from a color TV screen. I can see how intriguing that would be for a child to do.
DeleteThe exercise we get now isn't from getting up to turn the channel but we still get some exercise from trying to locate the remote. HaHa
What a fun Six. My mother tells of watching TV through the neighbor's window- the first neighbor to have one of those new fangled things. I remember before color and that little dot that slowly disappeared long after switching it off.
ReplyDeleteI also want to say, What a wonderful, welcoming introduction to the story. I have enjoyed being a fairly regular participant in SSS for about three years now. It is a place to not only see writing modeled, but decency and good netizenship.
What a cute story about your mother's experience of watching TV through the neighbor's window. I remember trying to see parts of movies when we drove by a drive-in movie.
Delete"Writing modeled, decency and good netizenship" is what keeps me coming back.
What a lovely trip down memory lane. Not quite that far back in my case but enough :) I do remember the rabbit ears and, like Clark, would try the aluminum foil thing when I was out on my own. The things we'd do for a clear picture, lol Television has come such a long way! I suppose it's not even "television" anymore, not at least as we knew it.
ReplyDeleteI'm very glad you participate every week, Pat. Six Sentence Stories wouldn't be the same without you :)
Thank you, Denise. When my folks finally did get a TV, we didn't have an antenna on top of the house, but instead it was on top of a very tall pole in front of the house. Occasionally my dad had to go out and tilt it or turn it just so to get the kind of reception he wanted.
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