Friday 29 November 2013

New Rule


I was in the second hand store the other day and I saw one of those five inch TV’s. You know the kind; it is a TV with AM, FM and Marine band radio. Years ago, Louise and I had one of those TV’s, we never used it, but the thought was that if for some reason, the countries power grid failed and we were invaded by the Russians/Chinese/Americans or Aliens, I could put a couple of batteries in this thing and find out how the invasion was going.
 
We never did get invaded, and the power grid never collapsed, but what did happen was out regular TV died. One minute it was working and the next minute there was a black screen with sound. This was just after Arwen was born, so we were young and stupid. We decided that this was the universe telling us that we watched too much television and it is a good time to entertain ourselves the old fashioned way. We looked forward to the challenge.

I think it was about ten minutes before I was rummaging around in the basement for the five inch TV. I brought it up and placed it on top of the dead one. What I hadn’t thought about though was that watching a 20” television from 20 feet away is easy, but it is almost impossible to watch a 5” screen from 20 feet away. The only good way to watch a 5” TV is for it to be sitting on your stomach. We tried using that mini television, but it wasn’t very long before we came to the conclusion that we were addicted to the television and went out and bought a newer, better, larger TV.

I kept that TV for many years, but there never was an invasion and happily our main TV never died on us again. I think I eventually gave it away to a couple that weren’t television people and only wanted it for the radio. Needless to say, they are no longer our friends.
 
When I was about twelve, I got a large transistor radio for my birthday/Christmas that had AM/FM and of course the Marine band. I had visions of taking that radio to the beach and having dance parties with girls. It didn’t matter that I lived no where near a beach and even if I did; my parents would never let me take it because sand will ruin it. I can only assume that at some point in time they ruined a radio at the beach. I wasn’t allowed to take the radio off of our property or it would get wrecked. Again, I assume mom or dad once ruined a transistor radio by taking it off of the property. The way I saw it, mom and dad were the irresponsible ones, not me.

That left me with this great technological, transportable wonder plugged into my bedroom wall. I listened to CHUM 1050 but not too loudly of course. It seems that if you played a transistor radio too loud, the speakers would get ruined. Now, how did mom and dad learn that? I found myself with the radio set on Marine Band with the volume turned up (but not too high) and slowly turning the tuning knob. I would go back and forth, back and forth for hours and hours, listening to static. Sometimes the static would change a little and I figured if I just moved the knob slow enough I would be able to listen to the radio signals of a destroyer or an aircraft carrier.

I never did hear a ship on that radio. I suppose it would have been better if I’d lived any where near an ocean. I did hear a pilot talking once or twice. I guess the radio could pick up the frequency of commercial flights. I was pretty excited, and when I jumped up to get my mom so she could listen to the pilots, I knocked it off of my desk and it never worked again. Oh, it could get static, but only on the AM channels.
 

Mom and dad never mentioned it, but I think there was a new rule made about my never having a radio in my room or it would get wrecked.

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