BEFORE WE HAD T.V.

Ha. I beat you. I watched TV starting at age 12, 1954 or early 55. But I stayed loyal to the radio til the end.

We didn't get a teevee until 1956, because we lived in a rural area, and there was no teevee station to watch until then.

I got to watch grandma's TV, when we visited her. I think the first station came to Fresno about 1955 or so. Three networks on a single channel. Endless car advertising during the day. Don't recall when we got a TV of our own.

Memory sharpens. After we moved to Fresno, the old man bought a used Zenith. I begin to recall, because, it was when Walt Disney made it known he was launching his TV show, to coincide with the opening of Disneyland. A clip from one of his cartoons would play, then a voice announce, "Walt Disney is up to something big on ABC TV." To me and Sam, Walt was still god. Our impatience knew no bounds. Three days before the Disneyland show premiered, the TV's tube flat lined. We ended up listening, but not watching. When later, we got to watch again, at my aunt's house, she would suddenly jump up. "No wonder they call it Dizzyland," she'd say. "I can't take any more." And we ended up watching a detective show.

We got the first set in there abouts 1957 or so. I vaguely recall it, my mother was against it and said it would destroy everything, she allowed it in deference to my father, or so she said. Oddly, I remember her watching it more than he did (even before he died...not sure if he watched after he died). We didn't watch a lot. Wasn't much radio either, we had the dining room wooden case tuber, in the morning and a smaller black plastic cased tuber in the living room which rarely got use. Television was an hour or two here and there at first, then gradually built up to the evening news and then one day, it was on midday. When up in Vermont, the reception was often bad, consequently not a whole lot of television. They were more talkers anyways and also a lot of time outdoors, weather permitting. I can't recall if Jerome and Irene had a set.

I spent most of my time in either my bedroom when I had one, or off on the side of a room, with my maps and atlases, letting my imagination take off. Reading books became tough for a time (a long story), then, at about 14 I got the black plastic tube radio as my very own...damn thing got hot, melted a candle on top of it
once.

I can't recall a lot what I saw back then beyond a show here or there, nothing regular or what grabbed me enough that I felt I just had to see it or else.

How about some old or out of fashion words. I just heard that the word skeddadle is being left out from some dictionaries as out of date. It doesn't seem old to me. Neither does gumption, supper, or icebox. All right, icebox, but my parents used the term and I do to, sometimes.

I still call it an ice box. Not always. Skedaddle, I can see losing, at least in my world.

I just took an ice box out of my trailer. They are still around...

The resale shop in town has some. I sometimes think I'd like to purchase one, but in the end, what for?