The Television
My parents hung onto their small black-and-white TV set for many years. When I went to live with my tia Josie, they had a large color console television set. And they had cable, which means they had television not only from El Paso, but also Phoenix, Houston, the Los Angeles stations, and Spanish stations from Mexico and Miami, and a few stations from New York and Chicago.
At that time L A only had 7 broadcast stations and cable was rare.
In the late 60s, my dad finally got himself a larger color set. The smaller black-and-white set went in my room. It was for Johnny Carson, Dick Cavett, and all of those wonderful late night movies.
When Thea was about two years old, I was watching the news and she came up and asked me a question. For a second or two I was torn between the news, which was very interesting, and answering Thea. Guilt attacked immediately for feeling torn. From that moment on, over 90% of anything that I’ve watched on television has been recorded. If anyone needed anything from me all that needed doing was press pause or stop and give them my full attention. When Sarah and the kids were not around or asleep, busy, doing their things, this is my time for reading, researching, work, my creativity, or anything else without interruption.
In a subtle way, I think that was a mistake.
It gave them the false impression that all I did was watch TV, and that anything I was doing was unimportant and could be interrupted. They learned not to respect my interests or time. They all felt that I could at any time be interrupted.
A lesson for me in trying to have things both ways.
However, something good came from this. This experience formed my relationship with time. A book can be picked up and put down at any time. The content of the book can be returned to at any time. My tia Josie gave me a small reel to reel tape recorder, and I learned to delay playing attention to something by recording it, and then examining it later. Cassette tapes allowed me to do that with radio shows, even TV. My brother and I got an early VCR almost the size of a Buick that allowed me to record movies, television, and the news. That kind of time shifting has been with me all of my life.
It is interesting that people now watch television on their phones. And for a good amount of years, there seems to have been some social distinction between people who only watch on small screens distinct from people who watch on television screens. Then came the digital projector where people could project onto their walls a much larger picture, but with inferior picture quality, but still a socially more acceptable way of watching. I don’t get it. A good TV screen is better than the phone, is better than the computer, and better than a hazy projection on the wall.
As of the summer of 2026, I still have a TV and cable.