Going with the latest technology isn’t his thing
Like fashion, what goes around comes around in technology.
Have you seen the latest cellphones? Compared to the one I first bought, which barely let me make a phone call, the new ones are light years ahead. They are mini computers with tiny screens that do all sorts of things, in addition to connect you to some other person.
The feature I get the biggest kick out of is how people can watch movies or TV shows on those bitty monitors. Why? They remind me of the beginning of TV technology.
My parents acquired our first TV set in 1948, two years before I was born. I grew up with that TV set. It was an upright console model with a beautiful maple wood cabinet surrounding a screen about the size of a small dinner plate.
I sat inches away in order to see the black and white images of The Lone Ranger, Superman, The Ed Sullivan Show, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, etc. Although they cut him off at the hips, I saw Elvis Presley’s first TV performance on that small, small screen.
It took a while for technology to move forward in our home. About a decade later, some family members gave us a portable TV as a gift, making us a two-TV set household. The picture tube (a cathode ray device controlled by a series of vacuum tubes) wasn’t much bigger than the “big” TV, which is what we called the console model we had been viewing since 1948.
A family friend well-versed in TV and radio repair kept the console model going until the 1960s when he could no longer find replacement parts. The wood cabinet was such a lovely piece of furniture we couldn’t throw it out and kept it for several more years as part of the home d茅cor.
By 1970, more than a decade after color technology hit the small screen, we were still watching images in black and white. A few years later, we acquired a new color set, a portable, since there wasn’t room for a console model in our living room.
By that time, we became a three-TV-screen house. I inherited a black-and-white upright console model that I put in my bedroom. My parents still had the old portable in their bedroom, and the color set resided in the common area of the house.
And all the programs we received were through a rooftop antenna, which means we got about two clear channels and several that were snowy but watchable.
My how things have changed.
Now we have cable TV and more channels than we could ever watch. The TV screens dwarf those of my youth. Then there is the portability of the new small screen devices: the pods, tablets and phones. But they have no appeal to me for watching TV shows or movies. I don’t want something that small. I have been there and done that. I want something I can see from 20 feet away without my glasses.
The latest addition to our family viewing equipment was a purchase my lovely wife made: a new flatscreen TV. Yes, it’s our first flatscreen.
But as you can see, we have always been the last to try out new technology. After all, I still use a shaving mug and brush.
As the saying goes, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Have a good day.