This morning I'm remembering a story from a Christmas past. I don't recall the year but it was when my boys were young. We had purchased each of them a small television for their room. They were just black and white televisions and were capable of being plugged into a twelve volt power source and operate that way. Quite the high tech devices for the time. It was a time before we had power ports in automobiles, we had cigar lighters. They were wrapped and placed under the Christmas tree. I was anticipating some excitement when those gifts were opened. The morning came and the wrapping paper was flying. Those televisions were indeed a hit. It wasn't long before they whisked them away to their bedroom to try them out. After a short time they came out of their room looking rather forlorn. I could tell something was the matter and asked, what's wrong? The response was, those televisions are broken. What, both televisions are broken, what is wrong with them? Well, there is no color! The picture comes on alright but it's not in color. It was then I realized they had never seen a black and white television. Yes, those little portables were black and white sets and I hadn't given that a thought. So, it turned out to be a black and white Christmas. I explained that to the boys and they went back in their room to watch their new sets. Neither of them said so, but I guess it was a disappointment.
There was to be one more incident involving those portable televisions. We were living in Louisiana at the time. The wife and I enjoyed going crabbing and would leave early in the morning. We had decided to do just that and the boys weren't too thrilled with the plan. We just told them to bring along their televisions, remember you could plug them into the cigar lighter in the car, and some pop-tarts. Hey, cartoons and breakfast in the back seat of the car can't be a bad thing. That sounded like a good plan and the boys agreed. I'd go so far as to say they were a little excited about it now. They brought along blankets, pop-tarts and the television, only one because the car had only one port. When we got to the place selected to go crabbing it was barely light outside. The mosquitoes were out in full force and apparently hungry for their breakfast. I know they sure feasted on us. The boys kept the windows rolled up and stared at their little television. Surprisingly the reception was good and cartoons were on. As the morning wore on and the sun came up it began to get a little warmer. I noticed they had rolled down a window. Picking up a crab I removed its' claws. I walked over to the car and nonchalantly threw that crab right in the lap of my son Kevin. His head snaps up and he shouts *hit! I'm looking right at him and ask, what did you say? He says you " hit " me. I begin to tease him saying that isn't what you said. Well, I guess you had to be there but it was hilarious. You know the truth of the matter is I haven't heard him use that word since. Of course I haven't thrown any more crabs in his lap either.
As with most things I don't remember what happened to those little televisions. I expect they went out in the trash one day. Funny I remember paying fifty dollars a piece for them! You do have to pay up for technology though. The boys got a lot of use out of them and later hooked the video games to them. Seems I recall Mattel making a system and we played baseball on it. Intellivision, that was the name. According to Wikipedia that would have been 1979 or 80. Now that was high tech stuff. Before that we had pong. This was all back in simpler times when things were black and white.
There was to be one more incident involving those portable televisions. We were living in Louisiana at the time. The wife and I enjoyed going crabbing and would leave early in the morning. We had decided to do just that and the boys weren't too thrilled with the plan. We just told them to bring along their televisions, remember you could plug them into the cigar lighter in the car, and some pop-tarts. Hey, cartoons and breakfast in the back seat of the car can't be a bad thing. That sounded like a good plan and the boys agreed. I'd go so far as to say they were a little excited about it now. They brought along blankets, pop-tarts and the television, only one because the car had only one port. When we got to the place selected to go crabbing it was barely light outside. The mosquitoes were out in full force and apparently hungry for their breakfast. I know they sure feasted on us. The boys kept the windows rolled up and stared at their little television. Surprisingly the reception was good and cartoons were on. As the morning wore on and the sun came up it began to get a little warmer. I noticed they had rolled down a window. Picking up a crab I removed its' claws. I walked over to the car and nonchalantly threw that crab right in the lap of my son Kevin. His head snaps up and he shouts *hit! I'm looking right at him and ask, what did you say? He says you " hit " me. I begin to tease him saying that isn't what you said. Well, I guess you had to be there but it was hilarious. You know the truth of the matter is I haven't heard him use that word since. Of course I haven't thrown any more crabs in his lap either.
As with most things I don't remember what happened to those little televisions. I expect they went out in the trash one day. Funny I remember paying fifty dollars a piece for them! You do have to pay up for technology though. The boys got a lot of use out of them and later hooked the video games to them. Seems I recall Mattel making a system and we played baseball on it. Intellivision, that was the name. According to Wikipedia that would have been 1979 or 80. Now that was high tech stuff. Before that we had pong. This was all back in simpler times when things were black and white.
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