A POTPOURRI OF ROOTS THAT...

mY GRANDFATHER HAD had an old Slyvania Tv well into the sixtes; it had a tiny screen and what I REMEMBER MOST ABOUT IT WAS THE FACT THAT THE SCREEN WAS SORT OF DIAMOND SHAPED! The interesting thing to me about old tvs, was that alot of people bought ones that were pieces of furniture, They bragged that they were encased in expensive wooden frames with classical carvings and the like!!

I do remember the tvs that look like pieces of furniture.my father bought one and made what they called time payments.

I remember our neighbors, the Browns, were the first on our block to have a TV. All I remember thinking was amazing. Of course my grandfather who was a very stern man would have nothing to do with TVs. I'm now laughing at the thought. In a way I guess you could say I'm somewhat like him, in that, every chance I get I find myself pulling my grandsons away from the TV to read a book, color, or to just have fun. Like dancing.....lol I can hear them now...."Awwwwwww, Gandma!"

I was born in 1946. My first 5 years, my mom and dad and I lived at my paternal grandparents' house. They had scrimped an saved to by a little Philco TV with a round screen (probably 12").

I remember watching an early Perry Como show. This would have been sometime in the late 40's or 1950 - 51. My grandmother never missed wrestling. She loved Gorgeous George (if anyone remembers him...). And of course, we all watched Kukla, Fran and Ollie. But we didn't watch TV as much as people do now. At that time, it still ranked about third in home entertainment. At our house, the radio (or in the summer, sitting out on the stoop of the old bungalow for some fresh air) and having friends over to visit in the evenings were the big things to do.

I remember my grandparents' friends coming over, and a couple of the women happened to have beautiful, semi-operatic voices, and the gathering would always coax them into treating the group to a song.

That's a wonderful memory for me. I'm sad to think that I'm the only one who remembers it. We moved into our own house when my brother was born (I was 5). So he doesn't remember back that far, and mom and dad and Nonna and Pa have passed.

I often wish I knew more about all those folks - their names and their histories, etc. I think that if I knew more about how they had become friends with members of my family, I might know a little bit more about my grandparents, as well. I suspect they all came over from "the old country" at around the same time. Unfortunately, I have an insatiable need to know more about my family now that they've all passed.

I must have been around 5 when we got our first tv. Dad and Mom picked it out and we had it delivered. I was waiting on the front steps all morning long for the truck to come. Finally it did and the delivery men took it out of the box and wrapping and my Mom said its the wrong color wood take it back. I burst into tears and the delivery men assured me they would be backthe next day. Well guess what, the store was out of stock of the dark wood and we had to wait two weeks! When the men came back they had a candy bar for me because they knew how upset I was.

born in 1943 my first experience with tv was at a neighbors who used to invite us kids over to watch howdy doody. i think i was 6 or 7 at that time. my family didn't get a tv until i was in my teens. I was still listening to the raido when i was 12. the lone ranger, the invisible man and inner sanctum were favorites. we lived on a farm and there wasn't much time to watch tv according to my father. out of bed before sunrise and early to bed. i didn't feel deprived. i learned to fish and hunt. hung out with a couple of good friends. it was a great childhood.

I was 5 when we got our 1ST TV. My father won it in a raffle. Now this was 1960 and most everyone had TVs by then. I remember a babysitter who came to our house and watched American Bandstand. We really didn't watch TV. I never saw my father watch it. I guess we would have never had one if he hadn't won one. When he remarried... I was 6, my stepmother had a TV that was a little bigger than ours and we had that one for awhile... it probably would have lasted for ever, cause I only remember watching Lassie on Sunday nights. Then when I was 15 they bought a 19" color set. Again, noone really watched it. Television is far more important to kids now than it ever was to us. We grew up feeding our imaginations and playing make believe with our friends, Of course back then we left the house after breakfast, grabbed a quick lunch at home and then back out till dinnertime. Noone had to worry about us being abducted. The world was a safer place back then.

I LOVED READING WHAT YOU ALL HAD TO SAY. I WAS THE FIRST ONE IN MY FAMILY TO GET A TV. I WAS 19 AND WORKING AND BOUGHT A 14 INCH SECOND HAND MAGNAVOX. MY MOTHER CAME TO MY APARTMENT TO VISIT AND THOUGHT I WAS WASTING MY MONEY.

COOL

I always remember having a TV. I do remember the first time I saw a color television though. We were out to dinner in a restaurant and my father got up to use the men's room. When he came back he asked the waitress to move our seats to another table. We couldn't figure out what he was doing. Were we suprised when we moved to a table next to the door going into the bar of the restaurant and there was a color TV on in there. We were so excited.

Yup, the first TV I remember was at a neighbor's where the attraction was Howdy Doody at 3 in the afternoon, after a riveting test pattern and high pitch hum announced the beginning of the broadcast day followed by the national anthem.

The first thing I remember on our TV a table top DuMont with a analog dial like a radio was an Army-Navy football game. Then things like Kula, Fran and Ollie and the Cavalcade of News with John Cameron Swazye.

Then a series of machines which included the round faced Zenith and cabinent style Sylvania.

My parents got their first color TV in the sixties, while I had a GE portable.

The thing I remember most about earily TV of the fifties is the store windows with the sets glowing and the sounds of sets coming from bars and taverns doorways in the summer. Another thing I remember was the Gillette Friday Night Fights from Madison Square Garden. I remember my father having some of his friends over to watch. Strangely if I remember right, Liberace had his program just before the fights, obviously an early version of counterprogramming, or was it?