TV Tradition

My Mother began her love affair with television when she was 18 years old. That was when she got lucky in a raffle and won the first TV set in her small Wisconsin town. “Everyone came over—no one else in Falun had even seen a TV before ours!”

My Grandma Johnson loved it too. When Mom married Dad a few years after her win, Grandma gave them money to furnish their new home with a new TV and she kept that original lucky TV. As a child, I remember many a day sitting with Grandma, watching game shows or movies. Our favorite TV snacks-- popcorn, grapes, and ice cream. Many years, and a generation of TV later, my Great-uncle Fred found Grandma sitting in her usual chair facing the TV, probably with a bowl of grapes next to her on the little side table. Was it Jeopardy that was on when he arrived? She had given up her spirit in the company of one of her TV shows. I can't help but wonder which one.

The TVs were different in those days. The screens were smaller. The picture was black and white. Far from being flat, they were deep. And there were these tubes inside, little elongated glass bubbles with wires looped around inside that wiggled with electricity. Sometimes they’d burn out and the TV wouldn’t work until they were replaced.

Mom still loves watching TV-- game shows, polka time at noon, and her daily dose of soap opera. "I just watch one soap." The TV is her constant companion, now that Dad is gone. Her hearing requires the volume up high, making conversation often a shout across the room. When there’s “nothing on” we might play solitaire or read with that “nothing on” chattering in the background.

I’ll admit, I do the same thing when I am at home all alone. Often times I use music or the radio rather than TV, but it’s a feeling of needing to fill up the air space. Sometimes it's easier for me to concentrate when there is background noise than when there’s absolute quiet. Is it a habit from that constant childhood TV, after all these years away? Or growing up in a large, busy family? Years past, I know that it was a way to avoid thoughts that would constantly whiz around in my mind if there wasn't some kind of distraction from my inner world. That's mostly gone now. For whatever reason, I carry on the family's TV tradition in my own way.

by Terra, visiting Mom in Minnesota