I remember going with my dad to the hardware store with a cigar box full of TV tubes, so he could test them and buy replacements for the bad one. Mid- to late-60s, I suppose. Maybe into the 70s, but I suspect we were getting into transistors by then.
One of the rites of passage in that era for father and son. Went through the same experience. That cigar box wouldn't have been a red and white John Ruskin box by chance? Seemed like every kid had one as a pencil box in our area.