New York Years - Moonwalks and Looney Tunes

  

We didn't have a TV for most of the time when I was a child. I say "most of the time" because occasionally, someone would think we needed one and give a TV to us.

The summer of 1969, my parents thought it would be wonderful to watch the moon-landing and so accepted a television from a friend. It was a little black and white set which we kept in my parents' room.

Like most people in the country (and the world), we stayed up late on July 20, 1969, to watch the lunar module land on the moon. That was a big event for us-just being able to stay up that late! My little brother fell asleep just before Armstrong climbed down the ladder to the surface.

We kept that television for awhile. On Saturday mornings, my brothers and I would huddle around the little ear jack, so we wouldn't wake my parents, and watch the Looney Tune cartoons. (I'm sure they were awake, ignoring us, and just trying to catch a few more winks.)

After a few months, my father got upset over the useless garbage on the networks and got rid of the television. We went back to listening to our phonograph records, reading books, and playing games.

We didn't get a newpaper or even listen to the news on the radio very often. One part of me felt like I was being left outside of the general knowledge of what was going on in the world, but another part of me enjoyed the protection and innocence of not knowing.

Sometimes, I wonder if we'd better off not having so much information-if we paid more attention to what was going on in our own neighborhood than what is happening on the other side of the world.

(Don't think I wouldn't miss my emails and facebook... I would!)