I was a kid of T.V generation. From the day my mother carried me home from hospital to the present day, I have always a T.V in the lounge-room. but i remember some of the jokes that came out with early sets. Like the one about the woman who, after a year of owning a set, called in the repairman, saying, it's nice, it's been on for a year now and we'd like you to turn it off for a while.
                                    


T.V became a part of our culture, our life style. What the piano in the parlour had been to the previous generation, the T.V became to ours. Not only was it a source of culture, entertainment and education, it was some thing to put the doilies on. By the time i was at school, only people who took strong moral stands didn't have a television. When our teacher asked, 'Who of you here doesn't have a T.V ?. Only one girl put up her hand. She seemed very proud of this, but whenever she came over to our place to play, she would plonk down in front of our old Admiral and stare at it fixedly. It was been same with every one i have ever met since who refuses to own a television.

                                   
In fact , if they say firmly, ' I don't have a T.V and i don't want one ' the general rule is, don't invite to them to dinner. They haven't learned the etiquette of the T.V addict. They don't know how to make civilized dinner conversation and will sit there , eyes wide at the on-screen antics. I love TV. It has been a baby sitter to me when i was sick from school and a companion on lonely Saturday nights. When i worked strange shifts and came home at 2 am I could count on it to provide some mindless relief in the form of an old movie. And it dosen't get offended when you turn it off, or faithlessly flick channels.Of course when we were kids we are not allowed to watch any thing we liked. Just half an hour of the rubbish was the rule, but it was never strictly policed .

                                     
I was an addict. Life without a set would have been inconceivable.I left the home during the great black-and-white toss-out which followed the colour revolution .It seemed natural to pick up one of these old black-and-whites instead of investing in the expensive coloured items. One local clean-up week we drove around comparing the discarded merchandise, until we decided to take home the astor Monte carlo set,a wonderful set in lovely laminex featuring. As I recall, a record player at one end and the screen at the other end.

                                 
we got it home and turned it on. It worked . I kept it for a few months and left it where it's stood when i moved on. for a couple of days i had nothing to put the doilies on and, in the pangs of withdrawal, i bought a small coloured model. It has served me faithfully ever since. I have yet to come to terms with the video cassette recorder. Selective viewing was never part of my upbringing.We of the first TV generation took the good with the bad.