TheBanyanTree: Back In The Day

[Dee Churchill]

You may have seen it as it's been passed around in email, that hilarious 
post detailing all the ways in which the current Over 30 crowd had it 
tough, compared to today's kids. One point made was, "Sure, we had cable 
television, but back then that was only like 15 channels and there was 
no onscreen menu and no remote control! You had to use a little book 
called TV Guide to find out what was on."

This immediately prompted a response from a member of the Over 40 group. 
"You wanna talk about TV?" she asked. "We had one, a 13" black and white 
-- that's right, no color. We got a color TV when I was 7 but we could 
only get three channels, none of them clear, because in the town where I 
grew up, there WAS no cable in 1980!"

Heh, heh. If you think the Over 60 group can't beat that, you haven't 
been paying attention. Although it existed in other parts of the 
country, we didn't get TV on the south coast of Oregon until I was about 
17-18 -- 1956 -- and it was black and white and very snowy.

What we had when I was growing up was the good old-fashioned radio. Ours 
was a table model Cathedral style Philco. It couldn't have been more 
than a couple of feet high, if that, because I sneaked it under the 
covers one night so I could listen to Inner Sanctum. That was simply an 
extension of hiding under the covers with a book and a flashlight after 
lights out was called. Except the books weren't forbidden. Inner 
Sanctum, however, was judged too scary for one of my tender age. (Eight 
or nine, I think -- totally bloodthirsty, of course.)

Well, I only got to try that once. Just when the program was getting to 
the good part, Mom whipped the covers away and marched off with the 
Philco, heedless to my pleas and abject begging. It had never occurred 
to me the grownups might listen to that stuff after we kidlets went to 
bed or that they might actually miss a piece of furniture not in its 
accustomed place.

I don't mean to claim we were deprived without television. Of course we 
weren't. How could we miss what didn't even exist? And, oh! What great 
radio programs we got to listen to. Boston Blackie. The Green Hornet. 
The Shadow. The Cisco Kid. The Roy Rogers Show. Jack Benny.

Oh, Jack Benny. Now there is an example of what wonders your imagination 
can produce. I listened to Jack Benny for years and always loved the 
episodes where he went down to his vault to visit his money. When Jack 
and the rest of us finally graduated to television, I could hardly wait 
to see an episode showing that fabulous vault. You know what? I was 
sorely disappointed. My vault was far more impressive than their version.

I find that happening in other contexts, too. Think of the difference 
your imagination makes if you read the book first and then see the 
movie, instead of the other way around. For that matter, think about the 
different visual associations you have when you hear a song before you 
see it in a music video. In a way, we lose something when other people 
present us with the picture before we can create our own.

That's why I don't think today's kids really have it better, where the 
imagination is concerned. Not worse, either. Just different. But, man, 
you should have seen my version of the vault!

Hugs, Dee
Coffee Bean Goddess
http://cbg-dee.blogspot.com