Television
I stopped watching television years ago.
Our television was downstairs , stairs hurt, I stayed upstairs and created music.
But now we watch Netflix and although we don’t have commercials we are watching television shows again.
Television has changed SO much since I was a child.
I still remember the time Dad and Mum brought our very first colour t.v. into the house! The excitement!
I saw men walk on the moon! We children were allowed to stay up past our bedtime to watch the Beatles perform for the first time on Ed Sullivan! I watched the bubbles rise up on Lawrence Welk!
And the thrill of watching The Wizard of OZ ! Do you remember when the land of Oz burst into brilliant colour?
We used the commercials to go to the bathroom or retrieve snacks from the kitchen. And don’t forget fighting over NOT getting the job of changing the channel. You had to get up to do it!
Our t.v. had ‘rabbit ears’ . Do you know what those are?
Some folks had elegant television sets that came in lovely cabinetry. Some people purchased the ‘newest thing’….small televisions that could sit on your kitchen counter!
The shows were more innocent then. Laura and Rob Petrie, the delightful married couple on the Dick Van Dyke Show, did not sleep in the same bed. Too shocking so they slept in single beds.
There were some pretty bad animations/cartoons for children but we all loved Looney Toons and The Road Runner, Tweety and Sylvester, Mickey Mouse among others. Saturday morning cartoons were such a treat!
We learned from Mr. Rogers , Soupy Sales, and Mr. Dress Up and we adored The Friendly Giant. “Here we are inside, here's one little chair for one of you, and a bigger chair for two more to curl up in, and for someone who likes to rock, a rocking chair in the middle.”
We knew that Lassie would save the day and so would Batman and Robin.
And we watched television together, as a family. Sometimes we had ‘T.V. Dinners’ on a tray.
Our television time was limited and we didn’t care because we wanted to run outside and play and we hated to come in for the night.
As we got older we loved “Johnny Carson, Bewitched, I Dream of Genie”, and we didn’t seem to mind that “My Mother The Car”, “The Beverly Hillbillies”, “Green Acres”, and “Gilligan’s Island” were pretty crappy shows. We still know their theme songs and we enjoyed them all!
Television had the ability to teach ( “Sesame Street”, etc.) or harm…..( you know how many shows in this category).
Today nudity and violence are nothing to this generation. We can become so desensitised that we think nothing of it if a guy’s head gets blown off or we witness ‘soft porn’ as part of one of our favourite shows….( “Game of Thrones” as one example).
You’ve heard the expression, “ You are what you eat “. But I think you also can become what enters through your eyes and ears. There are some things we just cannot ‘unsee’.
I want to choose wisely. I want to watch more documentaries. I hope to watch shows that are fun but not harmful to my soul. I want to be entertained but not at the expense of creative things I could be doing with my precious time.
Television has changed our world forever.
Let’s not let it change us for the worse.
There are some excellent shows out there that inspire and lift up. Share your suggestions if you like!
Here are some good ones….. “ Nicky’s Family”. “The Detectors”. “ My Octopus Teacher”. “The Kindness Diaries” …to name a couple…..
We can use television for good……and that is not ‘fake news’ !