Posted on 12/23/2017 11:09:04 AM PST by sodpoodle
The Stranger A few years after I was born, my Dad met a stranger who was new to our small town. From the beginning, Dad was fascinated with this enchanting newcomer and soon invited him to live with our family. The stranger was quickly accepted and was around from then on. As I grew up, I never questioned his place in my family. In my young mind, he had a special niche. My parents were complementary instructors: Mom taught me good from evil, and Dad taught me to obey. But the stranger... he was our storyteller. He would keep us spellbound for hours on end with adventures, mysteries and comedies.
If I wanted to know anything about politics, history or science, he always knew the answers about the past, understood the present and even seemed able to predict the future! He took my family to the first major league ball game. He made me laugh, and he made me cry. The stranger never stopped talking, but Dad didn't seem to mind. Sometimes, Mom would get up quietly while the rest of us were shushing each other to listen to what he had to say, and she would go to the kitchen for peace and quiet. (I wonder now if she ever prayed for the stranger to leave.) Dad ruled our household with certain moral convictions, but the stranger never felt obligated to honor them. Profanity, for example, was not allowed in our home - not from us, our friends or any visitors. Our long time visitor, however, got away with four-letter words that burned my ears and made my dad squirm and my mother blush.
My Dad didn't permit the liberal use of alcohol but the stranger encouraged us to try it on a regular basis. He made cigarettes look cool, cigars manly, and pipes distinguished.
He talked freely (much too freely!) about sex. His comments were sometimes blatant, sometimes suggestive, and generally embarrassing.. I now know that my early concepts about relationships were influenced strongly by the stranger. Time after time, he opposed the values of my parents, yet he was seldom rebuked
... And NEVER asked to leave. More than fifty years have passed since the stranger moved in with our family. He has blended right in and is not nearly as fascinating as he was at first. Still, if you could walk into my parents' den today, you would still find him sitting over in his corner, waiting for someone to listen to him talk and watch him draw his pictures.
His name?.... We just call him 'TV.'
He has a wife now....we call her 'Computer.' Their first child is "Cell Phone".
Second child "I Pod " And JUST BORN A FEW YEARS AGO WAS a Grandchild: IPAD
Shows how old this is.
Hmmm............reminds me of a CT I read ...like mass mind control and TV...
Too bad you missed The Golden Age of Television. Funny comedies, good dramas, good beats evil, no swear words, lots of thought provoking endings.....nothing like today
This is so stupid.
“More than fifty years have passed since the stranger moved in with our family”
seems about right;)
TV and Hollywood were once quite great... producing many many worthwile... or just very entertaining.... movies and programs.
not perfect, nothing ever is, but there were many TV programs worth watching for either culture or information or entertainment... in the 50’s and 60’s. and the great films of the 40’s and 50’s remain classics well worth re-watching...many times over. with some actors that could really act well, too.
after that, its been 90 percent downhill.
we have a nice big tv. we watch the nature and some history programs. and symphony and opera ... and reruns of Lucy, Carol Burnett, and a few of the old “morality play” westerns, etc.
98 percent of the modern programs are krap.
mindrot. and/or morality degenerators.
not to be watched, sorry to say.
not to be watched.
they range from worthless to harmful.
-——————————————from one of the most important inventors of television:
“”I hate what they’ve done to my child...I would never let my own children watch it.” - Vladimir Zworykin on his feelings about watching television.
Vladimir Zworkin was a Russian Jewish immigrant to USA and inventor of the electronic picture tubes that made television practical ... at first he was exceedingly hopeful for his invention, thinking that TV would uplift humanity by bringing high quality culture, opera, music, arts, and literature into the homes of the masses. Later in life, after TV programs started to degenerate... he rued his invention, saying that had he been able to foresee how his work would actually be used.. he would have smashed every prototype picture tube in his laboratory.
You must not be a geezer yet. It does state: ****More than fifty years have passed since the stranger moved in with our family.****
You get it. Thanks for a great post.
It is one person’s satirical essay on how Television has impacted our lives over the past several decades. As a few posters have noted....movies, sitcoms and information were presented with good taste. Today, not so much.
There is on off button...to be used what was once called a ‘parent’.
“Think about it!”
Read newspapers from the 19th century. They are informative and factual. Unlike today, editorial is separate from news. Plus stories were written for a more intelligent, educated and discerning reader than today’s tabloid media serves up. It is ironic few of those readers had a college education.
The Library of Congress has a website where digitized newspapers published from 1789 to 1949, throughout the United States, can be read online. A link to the site appears below. Enjoy!
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/
I never had cable until one year in college in the early 1990’s. And just basic channels. Then one year after that.
All I had was news, weather and TBN or such before it was so obviously left-wing crazy like now.
About all I watch now is “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives”. And I record “Dogfights” but I’ve seen them all and most of “Forensic Files”.
I think radio and cinema, without television, was less destructive to mental facility:
Radio forced the imagination to work; cinema was an occasional companion instead of a constant tyrant.
Progress + Sin = Degradation.
The great grandfather was cave art.
I still miss the Chocolate Cigarettes and the Chewing Gum Cigars I had as a Kid.
Remember the good old days when Codeine was in every over the counter Liquid Cough Syrup?
I also used to play with Mercury, but I never ate it or ate Lead paint chips off the wall. Just sayin.
If you watch TV, you thinks that half the Population is Gay and half the leftovers are Minorities. Bravo and HGTV 100%.
And before TV, there was the printing press.....
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