A Real Turn-Off

Since I was seven years old, television has been a huge part of my life. I would rush in after school and stare at the Indian head test pattern until our one station signed on. Back in the early ‘50’s, the broadcasting day ran only a few hours. I would watch John Cameron Swayze doing the news and every program until 9:00 pm when I was sent to bed. Even then when “I Love Lucy” came one I would peek through the doorway until I was caught.

Very few days in the last 60 years have passed that I haven’t watched television . The kitchen television is turned on the minute I enter to cook breakfast. As I move from room to room during the day, I turn on the closest set. There have been times when there are three sets running at the same time, and I am alone. One television or the other is on from the time I get up until I go to bed.

If I’m reading the television is on; if I’m on the computer, the television is on; if I’m washing dishes, cooking, or cleaning, the television is on.

We don’t have sets in the bedrooms now although we did in the past. I do have a portable VCR player in a bedroom for those nights when sleep just won’t come. I also can access the internet in the wee, small hours to stream a little entertainment if necessary.

Last night I was channel surfing trying to find something to watch (or at least to listen to while I was working on a project). There are over 100 hundred channels available and I couldn’t find one thing that looked interesting. I don’t watch reality shows, comedies are all based on tasteless subjects, and I had seen every movie on last night several times. I did something I seldom do—I turned off the set. I found a video on the shelf to watch, and I went to bed at 10:00 pm and read for a couple of hours.

I mentioned to Mr. Fixit this morning that my television hadn’t been on since early yesterday evening.  I wondered if I could make it more that a few hours without the background noise. I have the internet for news, games, and streaming programming from the networks, plus a large collection of movie DVD’s.

Here it is 9:00 Saturday evening and the TV is still off. It helps that we have been away from home all day. Tomorrow we have a full day of baseball tournaments. If I can start my day without Lester Holt and “CBS Sunday Morning,” I may be able to go another day without television.

Mr. Fixit said that if I don’t go nuts without it, we could save a lot of money without that Directv bill every month. Yeah, right! He’s also glued Encore Westerns for far too many hours a day. I think the loss would hurt him more than me.