That New Invention—Television

The first time I remember watching TV was at a neighbor’s house.  It was a teeny tiny black and white one.  I don’t remember what the show was.  Later my dad won a “blond” console TV playing bingo at the noncommissioned officers’ club.  We could “get” only one channel.  Every Sunday at 6 p.m. we would watch “Wonderful World of Disney.”  It was magical even though it was in black and white.  I remember sitting on the floor in front of the TV watching Tinkerbell fly around.  One Sunday we turned on the TV to watch “Disney,” but all we got was fuzz.  We couldn’t figure out what was wrong and were so disappointed because we missed our favorite program.  Later on, someone finally realized that the channel had been changed!

My husband told me the first time he remembers watching TV was standing on the sidewalk looking through the window of an appliance store in Wichita, Kansas.

My dad was never crazy about watching TV, but we played a lot of records (45s, 78s, and LPs).  My parents liked country music.  Their favorite singer was Marty Robbins.  We also listened to the radio.  When we lived in Japan during my senior year of high school, I would listen to the Armed Forced Network radio station.  The program I remember the most was “Meet the President.”  They would re-enact scenes from the life of an American president without saying his name.  You were supposed to guess which president they were talking about.  In the last scene they would reveal who the president was.