Why Not?

If you are like everyone else, the coffee and the television turn on at the same time; maybe even before you get out of bed. Just as the visionaries of the 50’s predicted, the glowing box or wall hanger tells us the latest news, weather, traffic reports and sport scores between a barrage of breakfast cereals and toothpaste.

The TV would remain on all day instructing us the latest home appliance, cigarette, and latest model automobile. During the day the television presented game shows, cooking shows, talk shows to the housewife raising the family with interspaced fragrant, hair sprays, lipstick and cookware commercials. When father came home the family would gather around unfolding their TV trays as mother placed the warm Reynolds’s wrap k-rations so we could watch the evening news. After that, the boys would go to their rooms and father would choose one of the three stations to watch until the station went off the air to the national anthem.

The TV guide sat next to the couch but there weren’t many choices. Sports included wrestling and boxing but football hadn’t realized the audience until Super Bowl I.  The movies consisted of “The Robe” at Easter, “Yankee Doodle Dandy” for July 4^th, and “The Wizard of Oz” for Halloween and “It’s a Great Life” for Christmas. Any other movie had to be seen in the theater. On Sunday, the morning shows were all religious preaching’s and the afternoon was calm and quiet shows but this was still the time of the blue law when alcohol could not be purchased.

I was lucky enough to have been given a television in my room, so I didn’t have to disturb the adults. I could learn classical music from cartoon, sing along with the Mouse Club and watch three days of a president’s funeral.

For special events I could watch the larger television with my parents. “Alfred Hitchcock Hour” or “Gunsmoke” or “Ed Sullivan” (especially the Beatle’s show) was a family event, but we were always quiet. The phone was on a cord in another room.

When I moved into this house my first purchase was a 19” color television. Brought it home on a bus after a Thalhimer’s sale and it had a remote control. Shortly after I got a Continental Cable (early Xfinity). A sloppy hook up with a box with a cord to another remote, I got lots more stations including HBO and Cinemax (that never billed me for) plus most important the new MTV. I was now paying for television.

After a year, the videos were becoming too repetitive, the movies on too late or spending hours surfing the channels and not finding anything interesting so I cancelled the service. Still it took me months to stop getting billed until I cut the cord and delivered the box to their office.

Rabbit ear television worked fine for the four additional sets until the signal changed from analog to digital. The local Radio Shack had analog/digital convertors and after an afternoon of wiring and more remotes, all the televisions were ready for the transition. When the switch was thrown the desperation of maintaining connection with “Oprah”, “The Today Show” and especially “General Hospital” became imperative. Movies on demand were VHS and then DVD box sets for binge watching.

Don’t know when the light bulb went off and I realized television was a waste of time, but I had to have one working television for Sunday football. Not a big fan of any other sports, football was my refuse into a violent dance. Not following or tailgating any team, it was easy to flip through the five stations to settle on the best coverage and the fewest talking heads.

This year my only working television started getting wanky so I tossed it and brought another out of reserves. It is the last of the CTR boxes and is heavy. All the cables are still connected in place with a VHS and DVD player.

Summer passed into fall and football was on the air, but I hadn’t even plugged in the stack of television components before me. I don’t know what any of the three remotes do or if they work.

Week one went by without a whimper and Monday morning I looked at the scores online. The same with college football because all the games are on ESPN or some network I can’t get on rabbit ear TV and I’m not going to pay for it, even streaming.

Then in one bright moment I went to NFL website and there was a play-by-play highlights of important plays with comments and videos. Why would I want to sit for hours staring at the blue glowing screen at little green guys run into little red guys, then get up and do it all over again, until there was one great play?

Those memorable plays are recorded and posted on YouTube for free access.

Watching the game is a spectator sports thus every sports bar has walls of them for patrons to cheer and fuss at while downing more than they should to drive home. There is nothing better than gathering friends around to watch the big game only to tell jokes and stories in the yard while the game goes on unnoticed.

Tomorrow is Sunday. The game will be on. Will I watch it?