Smy Guiley
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Sep 14, 2003
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Recently, my wife and I were in the local public library. In the basement is the childrens' section in one half, which I was in with our daughter. The other half is a constant book sale and newspaper archive going back to the early 1960's. My wife was sneaking around in that half for a while, and finally met up with me in the childrens' section with an old yellowing paper.
"Read this," she said as she pointed to the birth announcements. It was mine! She found the 1972 paper that was put out the week I was born, and my announcement was in it!
So, I thought I'd actually sit down and read it! The thing that really stuck in my mind was an ad for local cable at the time. "Call us and get hooked up to full cable....all 7 channels!" That made me chuckle a bit, but then I really started thinking about it. Once I was old enough to watch TV, my parents had that particular hook-up, and I'm thinking it was about $5 per month.
There was kids stuff in the very early morning from when the station came on in the morning (remember when TV stations weren't on all night?) until school started, and if you weren't going to school there were game shows!! Then there were shows on from about 4 pm til only 5 or 6 that were for kids, and that was about it. Once or twice a month, there would be, like, a Charlie Brown special or something, and once I was 5 years old, once a week I'd get to see the Muppet Show, since my parents at least liked the guest stars!
Ever get the feeling that it's just TOTAL OVERKILL nowadays? We recently cut our family's viewing down to one hour per weekday that our daughter is home from school, and that's usually in the evening, and cartoons on weekends like the good old days. That's it! It's been a bit of an adjustment, I'll tell you, but we're getting a lot more family time in. My daughter plays a lot more games and looks at books. We'll even throw on a stack of records (!?!) and dance for an hour.
Has anyone else tried budgeting their TV time, and what were the results?
later
eric
"Read this," she said as she pointed to the birth announcements. It was mine! She found the 1972 paper that was put out the week I was born, and my announcement was in it!
So, I thought I'd actually sit down and read it! The thing that really stuck in my mind was an ad for local cable at the time. "Call us and get hooked up to full cable....all 7 channels!" That made me chuckle a bit, but then I really started thinking about it. Once I was old enough to watch TV, my parents had that particular hook-up, and I'm thinking it was about $5 per month.
There was kids stuff in the very early morning from when the station came on in the morning (remember when TV stations weren't on all night?) until school started, and if you weren't going to school there were game shows!! Then there were shows on from about 4 pm til only 5 or 6 that were for kids, and that was about it. Once or twice a month, there would be, like, a Charlie Brown special or something, and once I was 5 years old, once a week I'd get to see the Muppet Show, since my parents at least liked the guest stars!
Ever get the feeling that it's just TOTAL OVERKILL nowadays? We recently cut our family's viewing down to one hour per weekday that our daughter is home from school, and that's usually in the evening, and cartoons on weekends like the good old days. That's it! It's been a bit of an adjustment, I'll tell you, but we're getting a lot more family time in. My daughter plays a lot more games and looks at books. We'll even throw on a stack of records (!?!) and dance for an hour.
Has anyone else tried budgeting their TV time, and what were the results?
later
eric