Farewell To An Old Friend
I'd like to say, "Hi!" to all my friends out there.
I'm sure that you, just like the rest of us, had to get ready for what happened this past weekend. Of course, I'm talking about the great "crossover," the big switch from analog TV, which has been around ever since television began, to digital TV, which has been around, I don't know, since cable started becoming popular? Anyway, I'm sure you know that if you're hooked up to cable or a satellite dish, the digital switch didn't affect you, as it didn't if you have a post 2000 digital or HD television. But, like the majority of us Americans, if you have a pre 1999 analog TV that's hooked up to nothing except an outside TV antenna, then you had trouble catching up with what was going on in Pine Valley this past Friday afternoon, because your TV started going "ZZZZip!", and it will pretty much stay that way until you get a digital converter box.
Like most Americans, we have cable in our home, and a fairly newer model (HD) TV set is connected to it in our living room, with an older analog TV hooked up to a second cable box in our family room. The analog TV in our kitchen, and in each of our bedrooms, however, needed converter boxes in order to continue working properly. The government subsidy coupons were only limited to two per household, and those converter boxes went on the TVs in the kitchen and my parent's bedroom, so, my brother and I had to buy our own converter boxes for each of our bedroom sets (set me back a good sixty bucks, too!). But every thing's hooked up and all the TVs in our house work perfectly, even better than before, I have to admit.
Most of the analog TVs that a lot of people have to convert with an extra box are color TVs, but, can you believe, I actually know people who still have small analog TVs that are black and white?! Yes! There are people out there who just can't part with their old black and white sets! (They say that these sets still work just as good as the day they bought them, but then these sets were made in America at the time.) As a matter of fact, I even know someone whose family still has the very set they bought when she was five years old! I won't disclose this friend's exact age, but when this particular set was bought, the Beatles had just broken up a few months before, so that would have been around, 1970? (Do the math, people.) And you wouldn't believe this thing if you saw it! It's so old, it not only has one big tube in the back of it, but also all of these little tubes in it as well! Yes! And it also has wood paneling! I'm telling you, it's a throwback to the days when TVs, as well as stereos, were all part of the living room furniture! I've even suggested to this friend, "Maybe you should just donate this set to the Smithsonian or something," but she says they just can't bear to part with it, even though it's obvious that it played its last broadcast decades ago. Oh well, I guess it goes to show you that, although we don't have analog TV anymore, some people just love to be nostalgic about the "good old days."
That's all I have to discuss this week. Until next time, be well, and stay well.
Sincerely,
Marley Sue
I'm sure that you, just like the rest of us, had to get ready for what happened this past weekend. Of course, I'm talking about the great "crossover," the big switch from analog TV, which has been around ever since television began, to digital TV, which has been around, I don't know, since cable started becoming popular? Anyway, I'm sure you know that if you're hooked up to cable or a satellite dish, the digital switch didn't affect you, as it didn't if you have a post 2000 digital or HD television. But, like the majority of us Americans, if you have a pre 1999 analog TV that's hooked up to nothing except an outside TV antenna, then you had trouble catching up with what was going on in Pine Valley this past Friday afternoon, because your TV started going "ZZZZip!", and it will pretty much stay that way until you get a digital converter box.
Like most Americans, we have cable in our home, and a fairly newer model (HD) TV set is connected to it in our living room, with an older analog TV hooked up to a second cable box in our family room. The analog TV in our kitchen, and in each of our bedrooms, however, needed converter boxes in order to continue working properly. The government subsidy coupons were only limited to two per household, and those converter boxes went on the TVs in the kitchen and my parent's bedroom, so, my brother and I had to buy our own converter boxes for each of our bedroom sets (set me back a good sixty bucks, too!). But every thing's hooked up and all the TVs in our house work perfectly, even better than before, I have to admit.
Most of the analog TVs that a lot of people have to convert with an extra box are color TVs, but, can you believe, I actually know people who still have small analog TVs that are black and white?! Yes! There are people out there who just can't part with their old black and white sets! (They say that these sets still work just as good as the day they bought them, but then these sets were made in America at the time.) As a matter of fact, I even know someone whose family still has the very set they bought when she was five years old! I won't disclose this friend's exact age, but when this particular set was bought, the Beatles had just broken up a few months before, so that would have been around, 1970? (Do the math, people.) And you wouldn't believe this thing if you saw it! It's so old, it not only has one big tube in the back of it, but also all of these little tubes in it as well! Yes! And it also has wood paneling! I'm telling you, it's a throwback to the days when TVs, as well as stereos, were all part of the living room furniture! I've even suggested to this friend, "Maybe you should just donate this set to the Smithsonian or something," but she says they just can't bear to part with it, even though it's obvious that it played its last broadcast decades ago. Oh well, I guess it goes to show you that, although we don't have analog TV anymore, some people just love to be nostalgic about the "good old days."
That's all I have to discuss this week. Until next time, be well, and stay well.
Sincerely,
Marley Sue
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