Black & White TV

Do you remember black and white TV??

I'm not saying I'm that old... or that I grew up that poor... I always remember having a color TV in the living room, but the first TV that I had to use to play Atari on was black & white. I think I played Atari so much because it was the only time the channels weren't fuzzy.

We had cable, but only on the one TV in the living room, there was also a black and white TV in my parents room. I could never understand why they would close the door and watch TV so loud, but as I got older it made sense...

Could you imagine having to get your freak on with the TV on super loud so your kids don't hear you? Wouldn't that kinda ruin the whole act?

Eventually we got another TV and the color TV from the living room became the Atari TV.. Finally, I could invite the neighborhood kids over and we could play Atari in color.. but by that time, they had the 4800 and I was still playing the 2400... Then the picture tube started to go out on that one and you used to have to bang the shit out of this one spot on the top of the TV to get it to come back on. It always seemed to go off right when you didn't want it to, causing your friends to lose the game and not want to come to your house and play Atari anymore...

This came about when I overheard this girl say to her friend that she had never seen a black and white TV before and just assumed television has always been in color... kinda like how my students see the internet as gospel and refuse to read anymore from books... One student actually said to me he would be more inclined to do the readings if I put them online!! ... just scanned the pages and put them on a website... I laughed like he was crazy then asked if anyone else agreed, and THEY ALL DID!!??

I guess we just get accustomed to what we perceive to be an acceptable medium to receive information... I didn't think watching black and white television was acceptable, they would rather read online than out of books... go figure...

On another note, I noticed yesterday I have a habit that has stuck with me from living with women over the years....

When I'm at home, I piss sitting down.

It started off as an easy way to avoid getting yelled at about leaving the seat up, then became an act of courtesy on my part when I moved in with a woman the second time, but I think she thought I was crazy for doing it... Now she's gone, have the house to myself, and I still catch myself doing it... I don't particularly mind, since it's just me in the crib and who is going to see me right?? It's not like I do it out anywhere else but home.... besides, it makes it that much less likely that I'll piss on the seat, which will make cleaning a lot easier...

um, yeah....., so, black and white TV was not the shit, but they should still give people that option to watch things in black and white if they so choose. I mean, black and white photography is still the shit, but black and white TV is not.

~C