A Little History

Aud turned 94 a couple of weeks ago, which makes me 71 now.  The reason I say this is because I am watching a lot of tv with her and our choice of programs is a little strange, to say the least. It got me to thinking about how much time I was wasting watching tv.

The first tv I ever saw was when I was 12 years old (1951 ?) and was staying with my "grandma" for the summer. She lived in Texas a little west of Fort Worth, and it was hotter than you know what, and she did not have an air conditioner. We went to visit her brother  (he was the town banker then) and they had a tv and ac. lol.  The screen was about 12 inches square, the picture was black and white, the program was Kukla, Fran and Ollie, and the tv cabinet was enormous!  I didn't care for that program then, I thought it was silly.  Maybe that is why tv was never very important to me growing up.

I think I was a junior in high school, which would have been 1956, when we first got a tv.  It was only a black and white and I don't think it was bigger than 12 inches either,  and Aud and I would sit about 2 feet in front of the screen and watch the Steve Allan show, and I Love Lucy.  That was the era of live tv and those were the funniest shows I have ever seen.  It was wonderful comedy and you had to see it to believe it because you wouldn't see it again for a long, long time.  I don't remember watching anything else during those years, and certainly didn't have a tv for several years after I got out of school.   That was also the time of the "don't sit too close to the tv, it isn't good for you, yada yada yada".

Don't remember watching tv after that.  I didn't seem to have time to watch a program all the way through, therefore didn't ever start watching one to begin with.  I do remember having one when the girls were 2 and 5, and they watched cartoons on tv, and Kookla, Fran and Ollie were still on and I still didn't like them, lol.

We took a tv to Europe when my husband was deployed to Germany after serving in Vietnam.  Not sure why, because we never had it hooked up until the winter olympics the year they were held somewhere in France, don't remember the town, but we watched them in German, lol.  The only other time we watched any tv while in Europe was sitting in a bar in Barcelona watching a bullfight while we were on vacation and it was raining and the weather was awful. And it was in Spanish.  :)

After that, things were always too busy and I still didn't watch tv because I couldn't watch any program from beginning to end for one reason or another.  The girls watched Saturday Night Live and to this day still talk about how funny that program was "back then".  I tried watching it not too long ago, and I guess I am just not into that type of humor.

Forward to the year 2000, still not watching tv, but big life changes happened.  My husband passed away after a long and difficult battle with diabetes and heart problems, I got laid off from work, took a job in OKC, and moved from the Houston area.  Ms Aud stayed behind to sell the house.

When I moved to OKC, I packed my car for what I thought was going to be 2 months at most that I would need clothes etc, before the rest of my belongings would be here. Must have known that was going to be wrong, because I packed my "stash" and sent it ahead via the mail to one of my daughter's   I  packed some of my clothes, my sewing machine, an iron, a small tv, a small ironing board, some quilting equipment (rulers, etc) and I think I bought one box with the minimum cooking stuff. All I could carry anyway.

I moved into a one bedroom apartment that was pretty large, and was furnished with a lounge chair, a long narrow tv table, and a bed that my daughter let me use.  The next day I went to the local Bernina dealer and bought a table for my Bernina, and a cutting table.  They were kind enough to deliver them, probably because I told them I couldn't buy them otherwise. And then I started my new job.

The people that I was around at work were watching ER every week and were always talking about it, and since I was living by myself and really didn't have anything to do I started watching that show on my little tv. And I could watch the whole show from beginning to end because there was nothing to disturb me.  But wait!  I didn't know what had happened to the characters before I started watching it.

So, I went to Ultimate Electronics, bought a 23" (I think that was the size) and a Tivo!  Wow!  I found the old ER shows on TNT and there were 3 hours of them a day!  So I sat that Tivo to taping them and it took me several months, but I finally got caught up on the characters.  I would rush home, grab something to eat, plop myself in front of the tv and watch George Clooney and Margolis, don't remember her first name, for 3 hours and it was fascinating!  After I finally got caught up on the characters and the old shows, I think that was about the time Clooney quit.  I lost interest, thank heavens, and got some quilting done for a while.

It took a year for our house to sell and then Ms Aud moved up here, and we moved to this house, and I am forwarding this tale to now.

Aud watches a lot of tv and one day not too long ago I wandered into her room and she was watching Orange County Choppers.  I was horrified at the language and all of the drama, but watched a couple of the shows with her, and I was hooked.  I had gotten rid of the Tivo several years ago and had a DVR on the tv in my room.  We couldn't watch these dramas in there, so I got us another DVR for the living room, and started taping the older shows so I could catch up on the characters again.  Deja vu.  For the last 3 or 4 weeks now I have been taping 4 hours of OCC a day, Monday thru Friday, lol. And now there is one hour on Thursday nights.  These all have to be watched, of course, so I am spending a lot of time in front of the tv one more time.  I will be glad when this is caught up so I can get back to some serious quilting.

Think I have an "addiction" problem?  Yes, I think I must.   It's a good thing I am retired, huh.