Television

When I was about nine years old my Grandpa and Grandma
got a television set. Of course the only reason they got it was to
bribe my sister into staying with them after she had pitched a hissy
fit, to come back home and live with us. My sister was three years old
when she went to live with them, and I was a
baby.

Mama, got real sick she had a blood clot on the
brain and had to go away to a hospital with the facilities to operate
on her.They said she might not make it off the operating table. Ma and
Pa, took my sister to live with them until Mama was home and well
again.It was a long time before Mama was all right enough to take care
of her again and by that time they had spoiled her, giving her anything
she wanted.When Mama sent for her she didn't want to come home so she
stayed there.

Ma and Pa, tried their best to keep me
and her apart when I got around her it made her wan't to come home to
live and I think they would have died if she had ever left them. So
they got a television, to keep her company and I wanted to go see that
television. I knew we would never have one Daddy was not going to spend
that kind of money for something else to run up his light bill. It
would be breaking down and need fixing and that would cost money, we
don't have and on and on.

We were jealous of her my
little sister and me,she got what she wanted or so we thought, and
didn't have to do any farm work.Once in a while she would throw such a
fit to come home, that Pa would bring her back and leave crying.After a
week or two she would go back never wanting to leave us, but not
wanting to hurt Ma and Pa either what a push me pull you life to
live.

Being kids we didn't understand it, all we knew
is she must be crazy to want to stay at our house and work all the time
when she could be there and get most everything she wanted.But it was a
lonely life just her and two old people never any kids around except at
school.Now she had a television I had to see that television so I
begged, and begged to stay over night until they finally let
me.

It was a remarkable thing to see a round screen
and people moving about, we watched it for a bit nothing but news and
boring stuff like that, it would stay on for fifteen minutes and go off
the air for awhile.I would sit there looking at a screen that had an
emblem and a loud noise that went right through your head, waiting to
see if it would come back on.Ma came through and turned it off that's
all she said, go on outside and play now.

Well maybe
Daddy was right if that's all there was to it who would want it, you
could hear the news on the radio, who wanted to look at the news
anyway. At least with the radio we listened to stories, sometime when
Mama, wasn't around we would turn on the soap operas, they would last
for about ten or fifteen minutes, those people on the soaps lived
exciting lives. Mama, thought they were nothing but trash and time
wasters,and wouldn't let us turn them on. At night we listened to Amos
and Andy and stories like that.Daddy would laugh at them until his
sides hurt, now how in the world could a television be better than
that.