Last updated on October 21, 2015
My husband comes home in the evening and he turns on the TV. It’s his favorite past time entertainment. News, sports, shows and documentaries, there is always something on, that is worth watching. Some shows I like and we watch them together, but often I lose interest and my mind wanders of.
We have over 200 channels and Netflix on top of that. We have a DVR system, DVD’s and Blue rays; we have pay-per-view and on-demand. We are prepared to watch TV at all times and can create our own TV marathon any time we want to.
Once in a while I think back and I know I am not the only one, who remembers black and white TV’s. Remember when we only got 3 channels on our televisions? Remember the TV Test Pattern and the nights, when the TV program ended with the national anthem?
The idea of watching TV 24 hours a day was not on our minds back then.
Sometimes I miss those days…
TV
You could hardly see for all the snow,
So you spread the rabbit ears as far as they’d go.
Pull a chair up to the TV set,
“Good night David, Good night Chet”Depending on the channel you tuned,
You’d get Rob and Laura or Ward and June,
Andy Griffith and Barney Fife,
Lawrence Welk or This is Your Life.I Love Lucy and The Real McCoys,
Dennis the Menace, the Cleaver boys.
Rawhide, Gunsmoke, Wagon Train.
Superman and Lois Lane.
Father Knows Best and Patty Duke,
Rin Tin Tin and Lassie too.
Donna Reed on Thursday night,
Life looked better in black and whiteThey were simple folks living a simple life,
Where everything always turned out right.
The good guys always won the fight.
I wanna’ go back to black and white.In God they trusted, in their own bed they slept.
A promise made was a promise kept.
They never cussed or broke a vow,
They’d never make the network now.
Nowadays nothing’s the way it seems
In living color or on the screens.
The good guys don’t always win the fight,
Life doesn’t always turn out right.If only I could, I’d rather be
In a TV world of ‘63.
It felt so good, it felt so right.
Life looked better in black and white.I’d trade all the channels on the satellite,
If I could just turn back the clock tonight
To when everybody knew wrong from right.
Life was better in black and white!
I would like to relearn how to live without a TV. Spending evenings and weekends without it sounds heavenly.
What stops me from doing it? Good question…maybe the one show I really like to watch, or knowing that my husband really loves it.
Maybe one day, when we will be older we will go back to the way we were back then, when our TV world was black and white.
Lazy Learners
Is there something you’ve always wanted to learn but haven’t gotten around to? What is it and what’s stopping you from mastering the skill?
Great post! Television is one of my pet peeves. Because of it we have become sedentary marshmallows – both physically and mentally. To make matters worse, I’m convinced that “reality” TV is contributing to the dumbing down a world.
Spot on Joanne, spot on. I don’t watch reality TV, never got into it. It’s so easy to just sit down and watch TV in the evening, too easy 🙂
There is so little quality TV, it should be easy but somehow I still end up watching more than I should :/
How about a black and white “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” marathon on Netflix….that was my viewing choice earlier this month. My kids are in the YouTube generation. They rarely view regular TV.
Hitchcock? Anytime…I am a big fan.
Love my Showtime , HBO and Bravo- and all On Demand too. I like to wind down in the evening vegging out to reality TV. My indulgence!
Books, board games and going out to plays. I think that is one way we fight the TV.
I feel that way, too. But sometimes I wonder if technology has gone so far there is not going back. We can turn the TV’s off at home, but everywhere we go all that crap intrudes in our lives. SO much background noise is driving us all slowing insane!!! IMO!
Great blog! Is the poem your original? We have disconnected from the TV several times. The first month is the worst and then you fill in the time with other things, although we never did get rid of the TV and DVD player all together so we could always find something to watch if we must.
I remember Bonanza and 77 Sunset Strip. We hardly watch TV, perhaps just the news and a good comedy. Instead we just prattle nonsense and go over the day, sip a wine or just do nothing. I love it. We don’t have single DVD and a good friend used to give us lots of hi-jacked DVDs, never told him we don’t watch DVD, instead gave them away.
We go to movies in town.
I remember when we had one channel, only!
I daresay that programs were somehow better, then!
I agree, I am TV’ed out 🙂
I remember and treasure those days, thank you for sharing!
Yes, I remember those days – so simple! 🙂
Yes, it seems everything was simpler then. Gosh I am getting old 🙂
I am right there with ya! 🙂
We have pretty much the same stuff except we dumped our premium package because we don’t watch them and we do have NetFlix and Amazon Prime. I think we have enough. AND we have a whole DVD library, just in case.
Same here and I wish it would be different. A took care of an elderly neighbor around 10-15 years ago. She was in her late 70’s and all she did was watching TV. Local stations, even golf. Day in, day out…she sat in her recliner and watched TV.
I felt sorry for her and promised myself not to end up like her. So I need to get my foot down on the TV thing.