A New TV




The 1958 Tv in 1964

 

Mum and Dad bit the bullet in 1958 , traded in the old windup record player / radio for a $10.00 credit on a brand new ( never used ) Black and White television/radio/record player combo made by Electrohome .  It was the very first brand new thing my parents had purchased on a tab they started at a local furniture store .
This was the time when coloured televisions were making an appearence in larger cities . This TV was with us until 1969 , when it was scrapped for our first coloured television .

Dad would spend hours with the wall mirror propped up against the coffee table trying to adjust the test pattern to a perfect circle in the hour given before programming started for the day . We would sit and watch this process , shouting out " That's better/ Yes /No " to his queries . Then , he would climb out to view it himself directly , instead of in reverse through the mirror . "Not quite," he would say and returned to the little knobs at the back .Miraculously , the adjustments were finished right on time for the first program . The test pattern ritual was the first 'interactive television' program in my opinion . Actually , most of our family TV watching was interactive in some way.



Indian Head Test card/test pattern
wapedia.mobi

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation was the primary source of programming , but a local station in North Bay added 'homemade' content to extend the length of the viewing day . The  Irwin Prescott Show , a talent show starring area children who could book in to strut their stuff and a Saturday afternoon teen dance show where we could watch area teens with deadpan faces display their style week after week .

Hockey Night in Canada at 8:00pm Saturday night no longer needed radio , and was probably the main reason Dad rationalized the purchase ...to watch ' The Game' ...along with most Canadians . He would stretch out on the couch and watch Hockey . If he fell asleep , we would sneak on a classical record and watch the tiny hockey players skate from end to end to Bach , Strauss and Beethoven . It made hockey a lot of fun . We knew that Dad would wake at the start of the third period . But between times he 'd open a bleary eye to the game and drift back to sleep .Just before the last period we would switch it back to TV and Dad awoke , pretending he had been watching all along.

After the Game , a half hour of wrestling came on . We were allowed to stay up to watch my little brother's interpretation , complete with grunts and floor thumping . He always did his move then turned to smile and laugh with us . The more we laughed , the more he performed .

On Friday nights , Don Messers Jubilee out of Nova Scotia , full of foot stomping fiddle music and square dancing , was the back drop for my brother's interpretation of step dancing . Everyone would encourage him to do more ,clapping and cheering his moves .

As TV permeated the homes of the other section men , my brother became known to them as 'BooBoo' after Yogi Bear's sidekick .

On Sunday night during the Ed Sullivan Show , it was hard to keep my brother quiet . It was agreed by all that it was one program that Boo Boo would have to sit out . It was someone's else's turn .