[Magdalen] Film puke.

Allan Carr allanc25 at gmail.com
Wed Sep 17 17:05:57 PDT 2014


I gave up a scholarship in ChemE in 1954 because I couldn't stand it any
longer and, anyway, every one of my friends who started engineering at
Hopkins had already quit. i was the last one left when I dropped out. I
went into the army, came out with the GI bill, went to Carnegie Tech (now
Carnegie Mellon) in EE, graduated, got a job in the Boston area, and bought
myself my first TV and my first HiFi.

The HiFi had big speakers, but it wasn't stereo. That first came out in
1958 to the public and by 1968, no more monaural discs were being mass
produced. At the moment, I don't remember when I bought my first vinyl
stereo system, surely somewhere in that ten years. That should be an even
greater deal in my life than thr TV.


On Wed, Sep 17, 2014 at 4:19 PM, Don Boyd <thedonboyd at austin.rr.com> wrote:

> We did not have television until my senior year in high school (1954-55),
> and only one channel (CBS) was availaable.  The TV set most certainly was
> not located anywhere near the kitchen, where we ate except when there was
> Company.  I was allowed to watch certain inoccuous programs if and only if
> my school work for the next day was done.  When I got to college no one had
> TV in the dorm rooms but there were lounges on each floor that had TV sets
> and all three major networks (no PBS then).  I remember the early Steve
> Allen shows on "Tonight," with the "man on the street" sketches involving
> Don Knotts, Tom Poston, Louis Nye, Bill Dana, and a couple of other
> repeating characters that I remember but do not remember the names of the
> actors who played them.  The presidential election of 1956 was a major
> highlight, even though my preferred candidate (Adlai Stevenson) had not a
> chance against the incumbent Eisenhower.
>
> I don't remember when Newton Minow characterised TV as a 'vast wasteland'
> (or was he talking only of daytime TV?) but in those years when I had
> nothing but radio to compare it to I thought TV was Wonderful.
>
> Don in Austin
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jay Weigel" <jay.weigel at gmail.com>
> To: <magdalen at herberthouse.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2014 4:13 PM
> Subject: Re: [Magdalen] Film puke.
>
>
>  When our kids were growing up, it was usually the news during meal time.
>> That made for discussions, sometimes very interesting ones. My kids were
>> always aware of national and world events, unlike many of their peers. The
>> way the house we lived in until my daughter was almost through her
>> freshman
>> year in high school was set up, the TV was in the living room but could be
>> heard in the dining room, so we didn't so much watch as listen. If we ate
>> later, the TV was off. After we moved, we had a small TV in the kitchen
>> where we ate, and the same routine.
>>
>> On Wed, Sep 17, 2014 at 3:41 PM, M J [Mike] Logsdon <mjl at ix.netcom.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>  >>>Well, it's a different experience for sure. A shared experience of the
>>> TV episode rather than direct conversation. I've never had a rule about
>>> it
>>> one way or the other.<<<
>>>
>>> Pop's dinner table was never intended to be silent, but it was also a
>>> place to watch one's mouth.  Luckily for me, he never had a problem with
>>> me
>>> eating in the living room so as to watch TV.
>>> _________________________________________
>>> "O perplexed discomposition, O riddling
>>> distemper, O miserable condition of man!"
>>> - The Rev Mr John Donne
>>> (in a not-so-chipper moment)
>>>
>>>
>


-- 
Allan Carr


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