Attentive readers with a perversely sharp memory may recall that I once shared living space with an Admiral TV.
If you're in the mood to shock me to death, just let me know that your extra-perversely sharp memory immediately recalled that I mentioned this set in my Dec 9th entry, Unheard Conversations.
After posting that entry I spent some time online trying to find a photo of the exact kind of set we had. I was curious to see how well my own memory of the thing might match the reality. A tricky proposition, I know, since I was specifically looking for sets that matched my memory, but hey - once you're over the age of 40, you get to fudge things a bit to make them fit. (If memory serves correctly, the US Supreme Court itself has said so. [See Bush v. Gore.])
The closest thing I could find was a 1954 model, but it wasn't very close at all. For one thing, ours had a blond wood cabinet - not one painted fire engine red. For another, the knobs were up high, not in the mid-section.
One might think that by now one could find photos online of everything that's ever been made, but no. I'm constantly surprised by what I can't find.
And if you can't find it online, can it be said to have ever existed at all?
An existential question, that - one that I'm sure will be worthy of endless college debates in the near future (if it's not already).
An existential question that left me twitching in the here and now, fer sure.
Well, until it occurred to me to check my own stash of photo albums, anyway.
Not having a perversely sharp memory, I could only vaguely recall one possible shot.
Boy, did I ever feel stupid when I found no fewer than FOUR shots!
In hopes of filling an obvious gap in the Internet's collection of images (and in hopes of conclusively proving to myself that I really DID share living space with this beast in a place long ago and far away), here they are:
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Sharp-eyed readers will note the charmingly retro "rabbit ears" in the third shot.
If memory serves correctly, it was on this set that I tried to watch cartoons one Saturday morning, only to find continuing coverage of JFK's assassination instead.
It was also on this set that I watched the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, and Gemini launches, and Dick Van Dyke falling over that damned ottoman, week after week - the Sisyphus myth made safe for family audiences.
Oh, and of course "The Outer Limits" and "The Twilight Zone." One never knew what one might find on those shows!
Unlike today. Today it's just the same damned thing, over and over again - the Sisyphus myth reduced to Hollywood cash cow.
Feel free to imagine me sitting in a rocking chair on a decrepit front porch, angrily waving my cane at the world as I say that.
Just be aware that I'll deny everything unless you can produce a photo.
On weekday mornings, our Admiral teevee brought Perry Mason and Captain Kangaroo.
ReplyDeleteI meant Admiral brought The Captain and Perry, Della and Paul in addition to the Dick van Dyke and Laura.
ReplyDeleteI think I thought that my father went into the TV when he left in the morning and became Dick. Laura seemed like a cheerier version of my mother.
I wasn't really able to understand anything more than the ottoman trip. Murray and Sally were always occupied with things beyond my ken.
I know the time frame of all this all pretty well because my parents moved when I was in 1st grade.
What interests me most are the things underneath the tree, including the blow-up (?)snowman (clown?), and your adorably hairy family pet! Is the groundhog by any chance the Ohio State critter? ;-)
ReplyDeleteLOL oh dear, that is too funny. I remember watching Twilight Zone and Outer Limits as well being a total sci-fi whore as a child. I liked the old Twilight Zone (with Rod Serling of course) and the new Outer Limits, dunno why. I have probably watched every episode of all of them. Some of my fondest memories involve a garbage bag full of socks that needed to be mated (7 people in one house and I was the only one who liked mating socks) and a Twilight Zone marathon on the sci-fi channel.
ReplyDeleteSilly Fool. Doesn't she know the Ohio State critter is a nut?
ReplyDelete