Here’s two stories about televisions. Story One: There were large periods of time we did not have a television during my childhood. We would have a TV for a while, but then we’d watch too much or something too scary or too racy. My Mom would put it out by the trash cans for the sake of our moral health.
Another time, one of my siblings was having trouble learning to read and so we had to get rid of the TV for a time then as well. We’d go a few months without a television, maybe even a year and then someone would be, “Hey you guys need a TV? I have an extra one.” Then we’d have a television again. I don’t know if my parents ever even paid for one while we were growing up, they just sort of come and went. For a while we had a tiny clandestine Black and White set hidden in the back of the coat closet like it was East Berlin. We’d hide in there watching cartoons in grayscale after school.
I remember I bought my first real television after I got a job and it was 20 inches and in color. It was super heavy and boxy snd had hook ups for VHS and DVD.
Story 2: Last Christmas both of our televisions started going wonky with pink and green banding. These were ones we got after we were married. The one we bought on a Black Friday sale and the second Tim won in a weight-loss contest at one of his trucking companies. I guess 10-15 years is pretty good in the life expectancy of flat screens. We moved one out to the front porch to await its fate. The other one we moved into our bedroom because we didn’t have room in the living room since a home office took over the entertainment corner last December.
I promised Tim that when I made enough commissions, we would buy a new television. Then we had a car repair, a house repair, and a bunch of other expenses come up, so getting new TVs was the last thing on our list.
After five months, we had paid off all the things, but then I got my laptop stolen. Honestly, it was worse for the thieves than it was for me since it was a 10-year-old MacBook without its discontinued cord. When I got my new laptop from Best Buy, they offered me points if I opened up a store credit card. Points expire very quickly, so we had to use them, but thankfully TVs are super cheap compared with last decade. We got a brand new TV for only $65 after points and it talks to the Internet wirelessly and everything. In the meantime, Tim’s work was replacing the TV from their lunchroom and said he could have theirs. They said it was probably 50 inches. He brought it home yesterday and it’s actually 75 inches—half the length of the living room. I am not sure where we are going to put it or if we even can keep such a thing. Having a large flatscreen TV was a mark of success in the early 2000s, so by those standard we are doing pretty well.
