There was a time when there was no TV... or at least not very many had one. The very first TV I ever saw was in a little room at my cousin's, who put this little 6 inch TV together and about 10 of us watched The Ed Sullivan Show one Sunday evening. It was fascinating! Later on, there were a few families who bought a TV, and most of them were 6 inch too.
It was a treat to go to friends or neighbors and watch a program. There were 3 channels, ABC, CBS and NBC. I Love Lucy came on at 9 pm on Monday night. I went to a neighbor/friend's house and watched that show... 30 minutes.. and then back home. The news was on every week day night for 15 minutes... then it went to 30 minutes, 6 pm ... and it was news, not talking heads. The network news came on again at 10 pm and then they all closed up shop for the night and went off the air.
We didn't have any commercials at Christmas time to entice us. If we had a Christmas list, it was from our own minds. There was no TV to influence and no computers to open up the world to us. We had an Alden's catalog to look at, but there were few toys in it. I also remember a Ward's and Sears and Roebuck store with catalogs. Sears and Roebuck sold material by the yard. So did J C Penney. They sold just about everything.
The newspaper came in the mail the next day after it was printed, and my grandmother read it from cover to cover. She'd get the paper in the mail and sit in her chair next to the window and read it.
I remember the day the headline that Israel had become a country. She pulled me over to her side and showed that headline to me. She said, "this is prophesy." That was the only way she got her news. She did have a small radio when she got electricity, and she'd listen to Ruth Lyons at noon. Her imagination of what Ruth looked like was not the same as when she saw her on TV later.
The programs on the radio were so good. Simple but good, since we had nothing more exotic to compare. Our imagination took the place of a TV set. Bob Hope, Amos and Andy, Our Miss Brooks, Corliss Archer, Jack Benny, Fibber Magee and Molly, Dragnet, The Shadow, are some of the programs we listened to. You can't imagine what it was like on those cold Indiana winter nights, to have a talking person in the room, when there was none before that little red radio was brought into the house. It was wonderful! I didn't like to hear the Dragnet music... it was creepy and didn't settle well with me. My brother would have it on. Jack Webb was the man on the radio and when it moved to TV, he was still the main character.
We didn't have a computer to bring in the troubles of the world... it was a peaceful life to even have a war going on and not be bombarded with all that was wrong in the world. We had ration stamps for food during the war, and could only buy what the stamps allowed. I remember saving the sugar stamps for when the grapes were ripe and jelly making. Nylon hose was hard to find, as the government used nylon for parachutes. Living in a small town environment shielded us from a lot of things in the outside world.
The day the war ended, (WWII) I was playing with the kids in the area when we heard yelling and carrying on in the road. Everyone came out to see what was going on. The war had ended and the whole town converged on the local church where everyone took turns ringing the huge bell. The rope hung down from the high bell tower and I watched as small women were pulled back up to the low ceiling as they pulled that rope down, and it swung back up. It was a time of celebration and giving thanks.
On our property, my grandmother lived off the land. We had a huge garden and I learned to work in it every summer. That's how I got my tan. We had a shovel, a rake and a hoe.. that was it. We had it plowed and then we managed the rest. We had an apple tree, a plum tree, a pear tree, a strawberry patch, grapes, rhubarb, asparagus, raspberries, and planted corn, green beans, carrots, tomatoes, peas, beets, lettuce and radishes. We ate fresh out of the garden all summer, and canned everything else. I had the best strawberries 3 times a day for the month of June, and the rest made into jelly.
I had a pole across 2 small trees that I spent hours on every day. We had a swing that someone had climbed up this huge cotton tree and hung from one of the limbs. We mowed the yard with a push mower that was so dull and so hard to push.. it was work to push and pull that thing to get the grass mowed. For 2 summers, we had a little duckling a piece. That little duck thought we were the parents and followed us everywhere. We'd fix the galvanized tub with a board up the side and the ducks knew to climb up and dive into the water. We had chickens and collected the eggs... then we had chicken for Sunday dinners too. Always fresh and nothing today compares to those we had that lived off the land, eating grain and specks of dirt. I learned to clean a chicken, but did not ever want to kill one. I'd leave the area when that took place.
The road crew would come down our road and spray tar in spots that needed it. We'd get tar on our feet, shoes, and bikes. Good ole' lard or Crisco took it out. Then dish detergent to get the lard spot out. I loved to ride my bike down the road in the summer where the heat would make tar bubbles and I'd try to hit as many as possible. We had time to make up things to do.... we were not bored,.. and there was always work to do every day. I didn't have to be told to work... it was expected.
Today, there is no comparison to what I grew up in. Everything took on a rapid increase.. computers are old in a year... phones are old in less than a year. Cars cost a fortune today. We bought our first house for less than we bought our car a few years ago. The elderly you live around, are important for what they know. Wisdom comes with age, if we let it. And youth is wasted on the young.
I sign off for this round.
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