Television
Growing up, I remember distinctively watching many TV shows and movies in my Grandma's living room. I can remember the flat-screen TV, what was typically on the TV, and what times the shows aired. Grandma and Grandpa were particular in the way they controlled the television.
│"You betta' not interrupt my show, Lexi!!"
Grandma recalls not having television for a while, but when her father finally bought one, it didn't change her life in a significant way. She remembers the oval, laptop-screen-sized TV with tubes on the back of it. The television stayed in the living room and was mainly dictated by her father when he was home. There was a color screen that went over the black-and-white TV screen, but it wasn't always accurate in the coloring.
│"Sometimes you saw an orange zebra...or purple broccoli...that's just how it was!"
Grandma shares the reception was terrible; that you had to put aluminum foil on the ends of the antennas in order to get decent reception. To operate the TV, Grandma had to hold the nobs until you got the right reception, along with adjusting the picture.
When Grandma's family first got a TV, they kept it in the living room. There were only two cartoons that regularly played. Grandma and her siblings would lay on the floor while their mother was ironing clothes, watching the shows until her mother yelled at them to go play outside.
On Sunday nights, The Wonderful World of Disney came on and the entire family watched it together. That was one of the only times they could all watch television together, mainly because Grandma and her siblings were outside so often. Whenever her father came home, he would change the channel to boxing. Grandma doesn't believe TV changed her home life, because she wasn't in the living room enough to watch it.
│And, you know, Mickey Mouse sure didn't look like he does today."
Grandma remembers Disney being a big corporate spender, along with AJAX. She remembers Kellogg's influence on television, but can't quite remember any other corporations.
My favorite part of the interview, Grandma shared all of the major news events she watched. She remembers when the US went to the moon; the rockets going off, the first step on the moon, the excitement in the room. Her mother let her stay home from school to watch the reporting of the Kennedy assassination. Grandma recalls the blood on Jackie Kennedy's pink dress as LBJ was giving his oath. She witnessed the March on Washington and was happy to witness it, even though she's positive it made others angry.
│"You betta' not interrupt my show, Lexi!!"
Grandma recalls not having television for a while, but when her father finally bought one, it didn't change her life in a significant way. She remembers the oval, laptop-screen-sized TV with tubes on the back of it. The television stayed in the living room and was mainly dictated by her father when he was home. There was a color screen that went over the black-and-white TV screen, but it wasn't always accurate in the coloring.
│"Sometimes you saw an orange zebra...or purple broccoli...that's just how it was!"
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| https://www.verygoodplus.co.uk/forum/let-s-talk/films-tv-books-nrr-new/43181-vintage-tv-tech |
Grandma shares the reception was terrible; that you had to put aluminum foil on the ends of the antennas in order to get decent reception. To operate the TV, Grandma had to hold the nobs until you got the right reception, along with adjusting the picture.
When Grandma's family first got a TV, they kept it in the living room. There were only two cartoons that regularly played. Grandma and her siblings would lay on the floor while their mother was ironing clothes, watching the shows until her mother yelled at them to go play outside.
On Sunday nights, The Wonderful World of Disney came on and the entire family watched it together. That was one of the only times they could all watch television together, mainly because Grandma and her siblings were outside so often. Whenever her father came home, he would change the channel to boxing. Grandma doesn't believe TV changed her home life, because she wasn't in the living room enough to watch it.
│And, you know, Mickey Mouse sure didn't look like he does today."
Grandma remembers Disney being a big corporate spender, along with AJAX. She remembers Kellogg's influence on television, but can't quite remember any other corporations.
 |
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSDz2UeZmhg |
My favorite part of the interview, Grandma shared all of the major news events she watched. She remembers when the US went to the moon; the rockets going off, the first step on the moon, the excitement in the room. Her mother let her stay home from school to watch the reporting of the Kennedy assassination. Grandma recalls the blood on Jackie Kennedy's pink dress as LBJ was giving his oath. She witnessed the March on Washington and was happy to witness it, even though she's positive it made others angry.
Grandma reflects that she didn't really watch TV back then, but now she soaks up everything she can. She was always playing outside which didn't leave room for watching casual television. She was always able to watch major news events, though.
│"Now, if there's something going on in Washington, I'm right there to watch it."
Grandma never used a DVR back then or now, and she's never really had experience with video recording. However, she did remember the first time she got cable and satellite television. She stayed up all night to watch shows, which went on for about a month. Her husband controlled the remote, but some of Grandma's favorites were Jeopardy, Bowling for Dollars, Days of our Lives, The Doctors, and Young and Restless. She thought MTV was horrible and told her daughters not to watch it (even though Grandma admits she knew they would anyway).
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| https://www.facebook.com/ThunderbowlPage/posts/bowling-for-dollars-originally-aired-on-wwj-channel-4-in-the-1970s-instead-of-co/1746851685583311/ |
│"I could watch cooking on one show, crafting on the other, 24-hour news on another...I love it so much."
Grandma doesn't watch cable or satellite TV today, but she still has access to some channels. She also doesn't watch online TV programming like Netflix or Hulu because she sees it as an inconvenience. After telling her that she could use those services from her phone, she was willing to reconsider.
Grandma believes programming is different now, than before. She mentions that before, news stations rarely displayed news about global issues and that they were primarily domestic.
This was one of the only interviews that Grandma and I could share similar memories on. Because I can remember growing up with TV in her house, I shared some of these stories.
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