[ale] OT Re[2]: Is this for Real

[Scott Castaline]

Jim wrote:
> Robert Reese wrote:
>> I was lucky growing up... we had *seven* channels, and one even lasted past Midnight on the weekends!  (Do you remember waking up in the La-Z-Boy having passed out, barely able to move from the hypnotic effect of tv snow?  That was some good snoozin')
>>
>> BTW, our first cable came with a set-top box with a little knob labelled "OFF" and "ON".  Appropriately, it was called ONTV.  Yes, it had exactly *one* channel.  HBO came out about a year later as a competitor, and IIRC, it had four channels and something most people had never seen... a remote control.
>>
>> Now where'd I put that Just For Men....
>>
>> Robert~
>>
>>   
> We had one.  The first TV on the block was a very small and quite dark 
> screen.  The owners set up folding chairs in their living room so 
> neighbors could watch.  I wandered in to see what all the fuss was about 
> and here was this fat lady howling.  I found out later that was called 
> singing.  It was Kate Smith.  I decided that I didn't really like TV at 
> that point.  The station was a MBS (Mutual Broadcasting System) member 
> but a lot of the content was locally producted by University students.  
> It came on at about 7am and went off at about 11pm.  My dad got a TV a 
> couple of years after that and I recall my first addiction was to 
> Captain Video.  There I was introduced to Tobar the robot.
> 
> To heck with the Just for Men, where's the rogain and my dental paste?
> 
> Jim
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My parents first tv was I think a Westinghouse Console with shutter 
doors made out of mahogony. The left side was the tv with a 9" screen 
(B&W of course), and the right side had an AM/FM/SW/LW radio and a 
record changer in a drawer. As far back as I can remember this was in 
the basement (finished basement as a rec. room) and in the den we had a 
GE with a 12" circular screen. In Boston we had 4 stations, ABC, NBC, 
CBS and the precursor to PBS. TV was from 7AM to 11AM until around 1958 
when NBC came out with the Late Show (Pre Johnny Carson, my memory slips 
me as to who the original host was). I do remember getting caught 
watching Johhny Carson by my parents in his earlier years a few times.