A
Anonymous
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The first television in our community was purchased in 1953 by Mr. Higginbottom. He was my fathers best friend so we went over every Friday night to watch the Gillette Friday Night boxing matches. There were no local stations and although it would kind of pick up 6 stations that were all over 100 miles away the reception wasn't very good. The picture was snowy on all the channels all the time and at times they would snow completely out, sometimes for a few minutes but sometimes for hours depending on weather conditions but no one seemed to mind. The TV had a small, rounded screen that was hard to see, especially with the snowy picture,but there was always a room full of people on Friday and Saturday nights.
Not to be out done my uncle Boyd bought one that fall when he got his crops in. It had a larger screen but the reception wasn't quite as good as Mr. Higginbottoms because there were hills in the way, at least I assume that was the reason. As with Mr. Higginbottom, Boyd always had a housefull of people on Friday and Saturday nights. Most of the time he and my aunt would go to bed around 9 pm and tell those watching the tv to turn it off when they left.
A few weeks after Boyd got the tv the picture started tilting to the right. It wasn't very noticeable at first but as the weeks passed it tilted more. It was a strange site to see 15 or 20 people watching it with their heads tilted to the side at the same angle as the picture. It kinda leveled off at about 45 degrees for awhile but eventually wound up at around 70-75 degrees, which made it just right to lay on your side and watch it. Boyd talked a lot about having it fixed but the only tv repairman was over 40 miles away and Boyd didn't have money to spare so it was left the way it was. When he did take it to be repaired, the next fall after he got his crops in, the repairman didn't charge him anything because the only thing wrong was the yoke on the back of the picture tube had been left loose at the factory and all he had to do was straighten it up and tighten the wingnut.
The Johnson family, they lived about a mile away, was always at Boyds house on Saturday night to watch the Grand Ole' Opry. Mr Johnson was a little man, maybe 5'3", but he had about 15 kids and all of them played some kind of musical instrument. They would have impromptu bluegrass concerts at their house about once a month during the summer after the crops were laid by. Mr Johnson loved watching the Opry, he never missed it for over a year before something came up to keep him from going to Boyds to watch it. He and most of his family were usually there at least 30 minutes before it came on but one Saturday night he was late. About 5 minutes before the Opry was coming on we saw someone off in the distance running toward us, I was spending the night with my cousin and we were outside. It was one of Mr. Johnson's grown boys and he never slacked up when he went by us. He was still wide open when he went in the door. We followed him in to see what was wrong but he was so out of breath he couldn't talk for a minute. When he got his breath enough he blurted out, "Daddy is gonna be late getting here and he said not turn the telleyvision on until he does get here cause he don't won't to miss none of the Grand Ole' Opry." Mr. Johnson thought, and I found out later so did a lot of other people, that unless the TV was turned on the show couldn't start <img src="/metal/html/smile.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt="
">.
JB
Not to be out done my uncle Boyd bought one that fall when he got his crops in. It had a larger screen but the reception wasn't quite as good as Mr. Higginbottoms because there were hills in the way, at least I assume that was the reason. As with Mr. Higginbottom, Boyd always had a housefull of people on Friday and Saturday nights. Most of the time he and my aunt would go to bed around 9 pm and tell those watching the tv to turn it off when they left.
A few weeks after Boyd got the tv the picture started tilting to the right. It wasn't very noticeable at first but as the weeks passed it tilted more. It was a strange site to see 15 or 20 people watching it with their heads tilted to the side at the same angle as the picture. It kinda leveled off at about 45 degrees for awhile but eventually wound up at around 70-75 degrees, which made it just right to lay on your side and watch it. Boyd talked a lot about having it fixed but the only tv repairman was over 40 miles away and Boyd didn't have money to spare so it was left the way it was. When he did take it to be repaired, the next fall after he got his crops in, the repairman didn't charge him anything because the only thing wrong was the yoke on the back of the picture tube had been left loose at the factory and all he had to do was straighten it up and tighten the wingnut.
The Johnson family, they lived about a mile away, was always at Boyds house on Saturday night to watch the Grand Ole' Opry. Mr Johnson was a little man, maybe 5'3", but he had about 15 kids and all of them played some kind of musical instrument. They would have impromptu bluegrass concerts at their house about once a month during the summer after the crops were laid by. Mr Johnson loved watching the Opry, he never missed it for over a year before something came up to keep him from going to Boyds to watch it. He and most of his family were usually there at least 30 minutes before it came on but one Saturday night he was late. About 5 minutes before the Opry was coming on we saw someone off in the distance running toward us, I was spending the night with my cousin and we were outside. It was one of Mr. Johnson's grown boys and he never slacked up when he went by us. He was still wide open when he went in the door. We followed him in to see what was wrong but he was so out of breath he couldn't talk for a minute. When he got his breath enough he blurted out, "Daddy is gonna be late getting here and he said not turn the telleyvision on until he does get here cause he don't won't to miss none of the Grand Ole' Opry." Mr. Johnson thought, and I found out later so did a lot of other people, that unless the TV was turned on the show couldn't start <img src="/metal/html/smile.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt="
">.JB