Blast to the Past...Part 2 Growing up with TV

There are definitely great moments in my life that occurred on TV. For me, some of them were in B&W…President Kennedy getting shot, Perry Mason and Alfred Hitchcock. But most of my most memorable TV moments were in color, like the US landing on the moon.

 In the sixties, we kids would gather around the TV for The Beatles, The Green Hornet, Batman, and the Monkees at the designated time. We would act along, singing with our tennis rackets and POWing each other with punches. The seventies weren’t so clear, but I remember getting into watching great sports like the Celtics vs the Lakers, pitcher Tom Seaver and Monday Night Football with Howard Cosell. I remember watching golf tournaments with the camera following the ball into the sky and the announcers whispering. I recall watching the Brady Bunch, the Partridge Family and Bewitched with more than a casual interest.

In the early 80’s I was living in a house with other college students and we had cable. We spent tons of time watching MTV and rocking out loud having the time of our lives. I  also was personally was mesmerized by the Weather Channel. In 90’s we were married a couple of years and started a family of our own. Barney, The Land Before Time, and Disney creations dominated the decade. But these were mainly videos, and the TV was on with parenting in mind. Computer games became important learning and entertainment tools.

This century, we TiVo what we want to watch so we can skip through commercials and cut the viewing time by 1/3. We watch what we want to watch whenever we want to watch it. We don’t go to the video store anymore. We use Netflix and PPV. We have our gaming consoles and laptops and smart phones and other devices to tune us in. It is truly an instant gratification overload. It will be interesting to see how this next generation copes with the hand they were dealt.

But, back to the point of this post. The largest single moment I’ve seen on TV was 9/11/01. We were doing major home remodeling, and Tim was at our house, as usual, working. I turned on CNN for morning news. The regular reporting got interrupted by the plane crashing into the WTC tower. The questions and horror and magnitude were suddenly and completely solidified when the second plane ran into the second tower. I called for Tim and we watched CNN all day in absolute disbelief. The collapsing towers must have been thunderous.

I have been to ground zero and it is an inexplicable sensation you get there. It is so huge, so deep, so sad. I know that we can’t go back to the”good old days” but I am forever optimistic, partly because of those messages that were brought to me through TV early in my life. We were soothed by these shows and I never felt at the time the ominous undertones that MAD Men confronts so bravely. I know it was a gift to grow up when and where I did. I will never forget how precious and fragile life is because I have seen how quickly it can be taken away.