Fort Lee "Our First TV"

Life was very interesting when the first TV came out. Prior to then I used to sit in front of the radio on Saturday mornings and listen to the kid's radio. Sometimes if I did not get caught I would listen at night. I used to listen to the "Fat Man". He used to go down the hall and you would hear him go "clunk clunk" and then he got on the scale and you would hear the scale go "bump". But TV was wonderful. One kid in the neighborhood had a TV. The church bells rang at 6 pm and we would all run to his house to watch "Flash Gordon". Half way through the show it would switch from space to the cowboys on earth, which later proved to be my Dad's undoing.

We finally got a TV. It had about a 5 inch screen and a box on the side. We paid for the TV by putting nickels in the box to make the TV work. One time Mom and I were in NYC visiting my Grandfather Kier and the "Flash Gordon" show switched to the cowboys on earth. Dad thought the TV was broken and called the repair man. Another show was "Howdy Doodie" with Buffalo Bob and Princess Summer Fall Winter Spring. This site says it all about "Its Howdy Doodie Time".

TV opened up the world to us. Prior to TV we used to go to the movies on Saturday and we got two movies, cartoons, and the news. Later we got the news at home. Now we get the news as it happens. Vietnam was the first war on TV. It is very different seeing real life killings than seeing it on the news in a movie theater two weeks later. Not always so good.