Time & Memories – 2

As I am feeling a bit in the mood to reminisce about the times in my childhood; I was also then reminded of the new colored Television set. Now that was a moving experience for many I am sure.

We had a small black and white TV which sat on a table in our living room and on another table there was the record player. a gigantic thing but it was called portable. What was portable about it I really couldn’t tell you. My parents loved their records and would listen to them for hours and if I was lucky I could listen too one of mine for 30 minutes at the most. That seemed unfair to me but I had no other choice until the day came when my parents proudly announced that we were getting a new TV and record player all in one.

Remember the kind where you could lift the top up and see the record player and on the other side was the TV set ( the home entertainment system of yesteryear)Though I know it had another name but what it was I cannot remember .

Again my mom made a fuss about this too. Though the good thing was, was that I was getting the portable record player for my bedroom( the thing took-up a lot of space in my small room, but I had a record player for adults and could now play my collection of 5-45’s and 2 LP’s. I was in heaven and so were my friends too because we could listen to our records for hours and have time to dream. Wow – that was life!

The new “colored TV” was delivered while I was at school and so when I got home that day my mom was already enjoying the new TV & record player console. I was beside myself when I saw it.

Just imagine solid wood ( not plastic like now -a- days)and it must of weighed about a ton and a nuclear explosion wouldn’t have even put a dent it because that was a solid piece of furniture that was built to last forever.

The parts were not all plastic either. A real glass TV screen which had to warm-up a bit before you got a good picture and there was a knob that you could turn to change the channel or a knob for the volume.(remember those were the times before remote controls)And guess who was in charge of getting-up to change the channel or volume when I was watching TV with my parents? You guessed right – me!

I was not allowed to turn the TV on when my parents weren’t there or else- that would be like committing a major crime, because you never know what could happen. (That was my mom’s motto) Plus I didn’t stand a chance to watch TV when they weren’t around because the whole TV and wood casing would retain the warmth and you got it – bingo caught watching TV even when I had turned it off 5 minutes before they came into the house. Believe me that was no fun – 1 week no TV as punishment for sneaking a chance to watch TV when they weren’t around.
Hey that’s life and it was worth every minute to be alone in the living room and to watch color TV!

Though this entertainment system took on a dimension of it’s own in the eyes of my parents and it (TV & record player)had to be welcomed into the world, so that meant a cocktail party and have friends over and take time to look at our new addition.
All my parents friends showed up and the men looked at the technical aspects of such a device while the women at the same time discussed the decorative aspects of this and at the same time listening to records being played on the wonderful record player. Everyone was happy and had time to enjoy life though my happiness that evening was ended abruptly when I had to go to bed because I wasn’t allowed to stay up so late.

That TV & record player supplied us with many hours & years of happiness giving us time to be together and share the company of one another.

Enjoy the company of each other this gives you a fond memory that will be cherished for sometime.