Flashback Friday

Tell about TV when you were growing up. Did your family have a TV? I was born on a Sunday and I’ve been told that my older brother went to Sunday School and bragged, “We got a new TV yesterday! And, oh yeah, we got a baby sister, too.” So there has always been a TV in my home.

Was it color or b&w? B & W. And it required a lengthy warm-up time whenever you turned it on. And when you turned it off, the picture would shrink down into a tiny bright spot in the very center of the screen and glow for a few minutes before disappearing with a squeaky little “pop” sound. I acquired a color TV when I bought one for my husband for our first anniversary present in 1977.

How many TVs did your family have? One. We have two now. One would suffice, but the son needs one to play his video games on.

Did you have one in your room? No. I still don’t have on in the bedroom, tho I know lots of my friends do and use it to fall asleep by.

Did your family leave the TV on most of the day or turn it on for specific programs? I think it was turned off until something specific came on that someone wanted to see. My Grandma referred to a couple of soap operas that she watched as “my stories.” One soap I got attached to when I was a teen was “Dark Shadows.” It featured a vampire named Barnabas Collins. And later, a song from that show, “Quentin’s Theme” made the top ten.

Was the TV on or off when you ate meals as a family? It was off during meals. We ate in the kitchen and the TV was in the living room. Later in my life, when my children were toddlers, we used to gather at my in-laws for a couple of weeks during the summer and process chickens. Their TV was also in the living room, but they kept it loud enough to hear in the kitchen – which was VERY loud. I remember finding the sound of it overwhelming.

Were there rules about watching TV? Not that I remember.

What were your favorite shows? I think I was pretty devoted to the Saturday morning cartoon lineup: Mighty Mouse, Donald Duck, Bugs Bunny… I liked all the silly ones as opposed to the super hero stuff. The Flintstones came on weekday afternoons and I always tried to be home in time for that one. Live action shows I watched included My Friend, Flicka; Bonanza; Saturday Night at the Circus with Don Ameche; Lost in Space; when I was pre-teen. Other shows I recall, but wouldn’t necessarily label as favorites were: Happy Days; All in the Family; Mork and Mindy, Roseanne. A lot of the sitcoms I watched, I saw as nightly reruns during the 6:00-7:00 hour while I was in the kitchen fixing supper. I don’t think I ever went out of my way to watch them when they were on only weekly.
My all time favorites would be the first three Star Trek series.
My current faves are Joyce Meyer’s Enjoying Everyday Life and Adrian Rogers’ Love Worth Finding. Dancing With the Stars is a close 3rd.

Are there any particular memories you have of TV in your younger years? Lawrence Welk, every Saturday night. I still like to catch reruns of him on PBS. Lost in Space and The Fugitive come to mind. The final episode of the The Fugitive was aired on the night before the first day of school and no one fussed at me to get to bed. I don’t remember a thing about the final episode, but I do remember being allowed to stay up til 10 PM to watch it! And I was glued to the coverage of Neil Armstrong and crew landing on the moon.