It really can only get better

[susandennis]

Today really just kind of sucked. I feel like crap and I'm ready to get better. At least there was nothing I had to do and The Crown did keep me entertained.

I was amused to see/remember one tiny thing. At one point, the family gathers to see a newscast and Queen Elisabeth goes over to the tiny black and white TV and turns the On knob and the TV springs to life instantly.

That's how TV's used to work, boys and girls! Instantly. In the very early days, it came on instantly but then had to warm up a bit before the picture was what we called then 'clear'. Plus, you had to walk up to it and use a knob. There was an ON/Off knob. A volume knob and a channel knob.

The first time I ever had a remote control in my own house was in the early 1980's. I got a Sony BetaMax VCR and it had a remote control. But, the remote control was NOT wireless! "CAREFUL! Don't trip on the wire!!" was included in the sound track of every recording.

My Mom went to the store one day, in early 2000's. She wanted a little TV for the den. She got one. Took it home, plugged it in, hit the ON button. Unplugged it, took it back to the store and told the 'nice young man' it was broken because it didn't come on when she hit ON. The 'nice young man' plugged it in and hit ON and, after a bit, it came on. Mother took it back home and, every single time she turned it on after that, she bitched about how long it took to warm up.

Not long after that, she emailed one night in a panic that there were black lines on the bottom of her screen. I wrote about it on LJ and angelamermaid pipped in that it sounded like she had turned closed captions on. I got back to Mom and she looked up closed captions in her manual and fixed it herself. She was so proud and I was so grateful to angelamermaid.

Wow. Got off track there... Anyway, tomorrow morning I'll send a note to Dr. Lung for more prednisone and all will be better. Soon.

Comments

[sweetmeow]

I do not remember when we first got a remote control for our own TVs, but Ray's parents (and us) purchased Ray's grandmother (who couldn't get up and down easily by that time) a TV with a remote control not connected by wire - I think it was a Zenith color TV, and it was damned expensive (for that time), too! I cannot remember exactly WHEN this was, but she died in 1981, so I think it was in the late 70s. All you could do was turn the TV on and off and don't believe it changed the channels (I can't totally remember). But - I did learn why remotes were called "clickers" in the early days. It really clicked - and loudly!! However, for whatever reason, Ray and I called it a "Clacker" -- and we STILL call remotes "clackers"!

[susandennis]

ha yes! it was loud and it did only do on and off. and the tv's that had them were very expensive. fun to remember.

love the clackers thing.

[badrobot68.livejournal.com]

Do you remember the first time you ever watched a color TV? I remember when I was a kid, our neighbors got one, and invited us over to watch TV IN COLOR that night...we were all so excited!

[susandennis]

I do remember!

My Dad got a promotion and all the guys he worked with pooled together and bought us a color TV. It was 1955! And the only color program available was on Sunday nights - Disney's Wonderful World of Color.

That first Sunday we had the TV we were each allowed to invite a friend over for the show. It was a Very Big Deal and Amazing!

[badrobot68.livejournal.com]

Oh wow! My family didn't get a color TV until about 1980!

[zyzyly.livejournal.com]

haha--I remember the first time I saw a color tv. It was a baseball game at the house of my mom's boss (which was really an awesome place even without a color tv).

[zoefruitcake.livejournal.com]

I used to live in a big old house in the country and next to our garden was a christmas tree plantation. Eventually my father bought it and sold the trees at Christmas. Christmas 1981 he did so well we had a bumper selection of gifts. We got a VHS for the family, my brother got a snooker table, I got a Sony Triniton telly with remote control and my grandmother got a little remote telly for her bedroom, but whereas my remote control did loads of stuff her only switched channels, turned the sound up and down and turned it off. So she couldn't turn it on from her bed but she could turn it off - weird!

[susandennis]

Actually, that kind of makes sense to me. You turn it on. And then get into bed and watch and can turn it off without having to get up again.

I love that your dad sold Christmas trees.

[zoefruitcake.livejournal.com]

Yes, she never had any problems with it and I kept my telly until the late 90s

My father was very resourceful ;0) We used to have oil fired central heating but many people were changing over to gas or electric so he advertised disposing of their tanks. He'd charge them to collect their tank, empty the remaining oil into ours and then get scrap value on the tank! We had two reserve oil tanks

[susandennis]

Wow. That's very clever.

[maju01.livejournal.com]

I'm with your mother re the slowness of TV to get going these days.