2006-09-19

Dad, something's wrong with the TV

One day many years ago, I heard one of my daughters holler from the other room, "Dad, there's something wrong with the TV.""What's wrong with the TV.", I yelled back."There's something wrong with the color.", was the reply.Fearing the worst, I went into the living room only to find them watching an old eposode of "Leave It To Beaver"."This show is not in color.", I informed them.They looked at me like I had two heads."Television did not always have color, this show is in black and white."They looked stunned.

When I was a kid, television was not broadcast in color. Even when color broadcasts became routine, we did not have a color television. In fact, my parents didn't buy a color television until after I moved out of the house.

I told them we didn't have a remote control either. "How did you change the channel.", they asked. "We walked up to the TV and turned the knob.", I told them. And then they said, "What knob?"

So then I described the old black and white tv with knobs and no remote. I also told them we didn't have VCR's or DVD's. Not even CD's. Tape recorders had big reels. We had no computers, not even calculators.

They asked me what we did, so I told them about playing games, riding bicycles, and sliding with the neighbor kids.

It's amazing how fast you age once you have children.