Life without a TV

Life without a TV
By Paul Baker

Ever ask yourself what you would do without a TV? It’s become such an integral part of our life that we are now willing to pay to watch the programming. We now have so many stations to switch to we don’t know where to go first. Most of us who have cable or dish have a choice of over 200 stations, but we probably watch on a regular basis only 20 or so.

If you don’t have at least a 42” TV, you’re living in the Stone Age. So why am I bringing up all this stuff that we all know so well, because I bet some of you remember the days when you didn’t have a TV. These new-fangled devises weren’t out yet, and if they were they usually were too expensive to buy.

I’m probably one of the few who can remember growing up without a TV; I had a little white tube-type radio that was my sole source of entertainment especially on a cold winter’s night after playing outside in the snow. It had a dial for the different stations and no remote. You actually had to know what station the various broadcasts were on.

I remember shows such as The Lone Ranger, The Shadow, The Green Hornet, and a host of others. Once the tubes warmed up and I got the station I wanted, I would wrap my arms around it and place my head on top and gather in the warmth. It was such a soothing feeling that sometimes I would fall asleep while listening to a broadcast.

The first family in my neighborhood who got a TV was the Hornsteins who lived next door. Doreen was a pretty blonde playmate, and one time she invited in a bunch of us kids to watch a show. I remember the big wooden console that housed the 19” or so screen, the make was a Stromberg-Carlson if I remember correctly. I sat there in awe as the images appeared and could actually see the actors as they spoke instead of using my imagination to visualize what the actors looked like and what they were doing with all the man-made noise in the background. This was the real thing and it was unbelievable.

One day my father came walking in with a 9” portable TV, I couldn’t believe it! We had a small room that led out to the front porch, and this became the forerunner of what we now call “The Family Room.” The set seemed to break more than it would work, and we had to call the TV Repairman to fix it. These guys only knew the basics of TV, and were nothing more than a bunch of tube pluckers. They would just keep replacing tubes one at a time till the set worked. Then maybe do a horizontal or vertical adjustment if the picture was rolling.

They would list the damage as a bad or weak tube and charge accordingly. Wow, I though, we have a lot of weak tubes. The set would function for awhile until the same old scenario would replay itself, finally my father got disgusted and went out and bought another set.

My family and I had our favorite shows, and Tuesday night at 8 PM we would sit down to watch “Uncle Miltie.” Texaco was the main sponsor and four guys dressed up in service attendant’s uniforms holding gas hoses would come out and sing about the service Texaco provided. On one episode, one of the attendants was Miltie, who was holding a limp hose and looked confused trying to do the Texaco service song. I never laughed so hard when he would walk around on the inside of his ankles holding the limp hose.

My all time favorite comedian was Sid Caesar along with his co-star Imogene Coca. They appeared on Saturday night’s from 9 PM till 10:30 PM. I rarely made it through the whole show and would often crawl into bed when the last half-hour seemed to be dedicated to Imogene. I soon got hooked on the TV, and rarely listen to my old radio.

And I’m still hooked and now have a big screen along with all that Verizon has to offer though I mostly watch pro bike racing and history while my wife, Rose, who has a demanding job prefers her “junk food” like “Modern Family” and “Two and a Half Jerks.”

The house I lived in on 87 Fremont Ave. was built in 1933, and just recently while checking real estate in Everett, saw it up as a “short sale.” It has 6 rooms along with one bath room. Three of us boys slept in one room, while my sister had her own bedroom. Yeah Paul, 3 boys and a girl just like your family only I was the oldest. I remember we had a black cast iron coal burning stove, and our forced hot water heat came from radiators and a cold burning furnace.

Nothing was more soothing while in bed on a cold winter’s night then to listen to the clanking and hissing of the radiator as the heat would come up. It was my job to stroke the furnace, turn on the water to a certain level, and then shovel in some coal from the bin in the back of the cellar. We eventually got an oil burning stove along with an electric stove which made cooking a lot easier for my mother.

Another modern convenience was a washing machine that had wheels and could be moved over to the kitchen sink area. It also had a couple of rollers that you could put a washed item thru and it would work as a wringer. No spin dry in those days. My poor mother used a scrub board in the sink to wash our clothes before we got a washer. Her hands would be red and swollen from using the scrub board and the hot water. When we got that machine, she thought she had died and gone to heaven.

Well my friends, it’s time to wrap up this latest episode of growing up in Everett. I have other tales to tell and will keep you entertain till Paul can get back to his stories. We all share the same heritage growing up as kids in Everett and can relate even though we come from different generations.

Stay warm and when you hear your radiator clanking and hissing, close your eyes and let you mind drift back to the times of innocence growing up as a kid in our City of Everett. It’s such a soothing feeling.