Thanks for sharing that great story Para. Brings back memories. With the help of IMDB I've determined I was given my first TV (very similar to what you described but secondhand) on September 27th 1974. I was 10. I remember watching Kolchak The Night Stalker and it had an alien theme that night. Horror and Sci Fi were, and still are my favorite genre.

For some reason your story has me also remembering the smell of the hardware stores back then. It was very distinctive and intoxicating to me. Hard to explain and I don't know if that smell exists anywhere anymore. Modern stores like Harbor Freight and the auto parts chains have the strong smell of cheap Chinese materials off gassing.

I had to get sick and end up in the Hospital before my Dad would buy a second (small) TV so that I'd have something to watch. It became "the kids" TV after I came home. I bought my parents their first color TV when I was in College.

I am a bit younger but you brought back memories of me getting my first 13 inch black and white TV. What an AMAZING gift it was.

I spent the day setting up a VR headset for my daughter and to be honest me as well but as wonderous as that piece of tech is it can’t possibly live up to that 13 inch B/W TV.

Thanks for the memory.

And here I thought this was going to be about a BB gun.
Having said that, it's weird that everything I know about "film noir" is from a gun forum, and a "kid and his first tv."
I think we had the same mom.
Merry Christmas Para.

I don't remember those action figures but I sure remember Western Auto. They sold just about everything under the sun.

quote:

Originally posted by shovelhead:
Christmas morning she gave me a card. Inside was written that she had paid my cousin off what I owed him....she sacrificed a lot financially that year for me.

About 1971 I was on my own and realized how much she did that she really could not afford to do. I pretty sure I thanked her for those sacrifices but time dims memory, she has been gone since 1998.

I have had relatives do similar for me when I was younger. Like you, the items are long gone, but the love shown will never be forgotten.

In retrospect, just like in Para's story, the commitment seems as if that was really the gift.

Para,

Great story. Thank you for sharing it.
Merry Christmas to you and your family.

What a great story!

Wow, fifty years ago tonight I had been in Vietnam for about two months. My wife and I were married in 1966 and that was the first time we had been separated.

I remember wanting my own radio for years. When I graduated from High School in '61 my parents gave me a transistor radio! No tubes! Cutting edge technology.

Late at night I could pull in WLS in Chicago (I lived in southern Michigan halfway between Chicago and Detroit). They played all the early Rock N Roll songs. It was heaven to me.

Sometimes as I chased the dial I would hear a station from way out in the Western states like Colorado, I think one time I picked up Phoenix Arizona. Nighttime was the time for radio.

Merry Christmas to everyone here and thank you Para for your story.

It was 1958. My Dad worked in the oilfield in Ardmore, OK. As I recall, we barely had money for necessities. After a few years of pleading, Santa brought me a 12" Philco B&W TV. I still fondly remember that Christmas morning as being one of the highlights of my life! Para, your eloquent story brought back all of those wonderful memories on a Christmas night some 61 years later. For that, I can't thank you enough....God bless you sir.

quote:

Originally posted by TRIO:

quote:

Originally posted by shovelhead:
Christmas morning she gave me a card. Inside was written that she had paid my cousin off what I owed him....she sacrificed a lot financially that year for me.

About 1971 I was on my own and realized how much she did that she really could not afford to do. I pretty sure I thanked her for those sacrifices but time dims memory, she has been gone since 1998.

I have had relatives do similar for me when I was younger. Like you, the items are long gone, but the love shown will never be forgotten.

In retrospect, just like in Para's story, the commitment seems as if that was really the gift.

Tom, that also brought something else to mind. My uncle George on my mother's side. That night at another aunt and uncle's house. He was the body shop manager at a Ford dealership. He had seen my Scrambler sometime when I was not home and noticed that the paint was flaking around the gas cap, about normal for spray bomb paint jobs back then, candy apple purple. That night he told me to take off what I wanted to be painted so I took the side covers and the gas tank and took them to his home. A couple weeks later I got them back, painted a copper metallic color called Emberglow, 1966 Ford color.

The icing on the cake!

I'm smiling a bit more tonight remembering!

Touching story, Para. Most of us our age remember the sacrifices our parents made to plaster a huge smile on our faces. Our wants were comparatively small compared to the barrage of stuff available for our grandchildren.

Merry Christmas to those everyone that drops in on the best forum on the planet.
Mike

We never really had a TV until 1972, when dad got stationed in Panama. We moved into Corozol compound and the house came furnished, and one of the furnishings was a TV!!! All we had was AFN but still had cartoons on Saturday mornings, and HBO when it started! Sunday nights were memories of Mutual of Omaha and Disney, and Saturdays at 7 HBO played a movie!

Thanks for bringing back that memory, Para! Merry Christmas to you and yours!

Good story. You guys were rich! I was just a scrounge, and I played it to the max. I furnished my own room, the proceeds of walking to school each day. My first great find was a radio. No, not the modern stereo, just an old multi channel job. I had to get to school, but I politely knocked on the ladies door. She didn't care, and was nice enough to let me store it in her garage until after school. A buddy and I toted it home after school (uphill, no less). It worked great, and got the local station. Of course it did, you could get that station on a cheap pie pan hung on a barbed wire fence (but only if you knew how to "adjust" it. The best part was the 12" speaker. Heavy didn't even come close to describing it.

I found a couch, but wasn't allowed to bring it in the house. Seems like upholstered furniture was bad even back then.

But then the day came about 1964 when I found a TV. Same deal, the nice lady said it worked but they'd gotten a color TV! So I put it in off the street, behind a bush. Then after school I got a rich friend who had a car to haul it home. I owed him big time. Dad bitched about the electricity my new toys took up. But when our TV went on the fritz, he moved MY tv to the living room. Life wasn't always fair. The idea of a brand new TV was just out of consideration.

But then about 1968 I was going out with my now wife and some guys were landing on the moon. I have no idea why it was in color, it was all black and white. But I liked Bonanza when I was picking her up for a date. She was kind of poor too, so didn't have high expectations. My biggest expense was fuel to go visit her at school. She was in Nursing school 25 miles away, but I was driving a VW. $3.00 to fill it to overflowing.

My mother dug deep and paid to have seat belts installed in the front seat. Just in case I married that girl, she wanted her to survive. My dad told her the 1961 VW didn't go fast enough to hurt anybody.

Cool story. Thanks for sharing, Para.

That was an entertaining read. It has an ending like those films of the 30’s and before you described. I hope in our own way we can all relate to your experience. I know I can. Your father’s sense of humor there is much like my father’s.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
Major Matt Mason. Any of you old guys remember that? This was a Mattel "action figure", an astronaut, along with another Mattel figure- Captain Lazer. Am I jarring loose any memories?

Yup ! With a sledge hammer ! Had a major matt and another astronaut, the giant alien and the space station. The small figures arms and legs would stop working when you broke the wires in them from bending too much ! lol!

Great story Para ! And dang ! We are the same age.

Para, a very well-written account and very intertaining. Thanks for sharing.

When I was 10 years old, none of those things existed. I wanted a Gilbert Erector Set, but even the smaller versions were very expensive. We didn't have a lot of money. One Christmas I did get a construction set, though--it wasn't an "Erector", but one of the much less expensive clones, but I had a great time building things with it. It did have an electric motor accessory and made things all the more fun. My 7-year-younger cousin Glen oiled that motor with LePages glue, so it stopped working (of course). My mom just washed it out with hot water and let it dry, and then it worked again. (Amazing)

In 1969 I was 29 years old and stationed with USAF in Iran. The Shah had just had a satellite TV hookup installed and we in Tehran were able to watch the Moon landing live! That was also amazing--to be able to use such high-tech stuff while some citizens were living in mud huts.

flashguy

I remember western auto. Always looked at the Guns and bikes. Me and my older brother shared a 13” black and white tv for a loooong time. I wish I could go back. Christmas was so exciting.

I remember asking for a TV. My parents said, "No TV". So I saved up from my paper route to buy my own. Once I had enough, I asked to be taken to the store. My parents said, "No TV. One in the house is enough".

I was crushed.

Great story! I remember when our neighbors bought the first color TV on the street. Everyone came to watch it. Very few shows were broadcast in color.
Now you watch your phone!