My dad was a Marine radioman in WW II, so he really knew his way around TV innards in the 50s and 60s. Like your Dad, he had a pile of tubes. He even changed out the big momma of them all, the PICTURE TUBE! I remember around age 5 or 6 he showed me how to discharge the capacitors so you don’t kill yourself. I was scared to death one of us was going to get it - poof! Up in a wisp of smoke.
How many today have even heard of the “picture tube”?
I’ll never forget the night I stayed up late with my father when it came time for “degaussing” the tube in the Heathkit Color TV he’d just built. Scared the hell out of me. He was all decked-out in rubber and we both knew he might not survive the procedure. He also had a remote control to operate the little motors on the rooftop antenna.