I recently posted a link to the Spry Society website on Facebook. In the post I said “Are you old enough to actually remember watching a black and white TV with rabbit ears? If so, you may qualify.”

An old friend responded with the little story below:

We lived in the Hudson Valley in New York State 90 miles north of the city. We could only get the one channel about 60 miles north of us in Schenectady. My father decided to put an antenna on the roof to pick up the NYC channels. It worked well most of the time but needed fine tuning now and then.

My father would get on the roof while we watched the picture, and my mother yelled to my father when we had the best reception – no snow and no static. It was not a smooth process but a way to broaden my vocabulary with words I was forbidden to say.

My father worked for the telephone company and had started as a lineman and installer. Climbing onto the roof and turning the antenna in the right direction was easy for him. The hard part was following my mother’s vague directions whether in the car or on the roof.

Another early memory was going with my father to the hardware store to test television tubes. I loved lining up the prongs, putting them in the right place, and seeing if they lit up.

— Kathleen Cuerdon-Kahn

 

 

Incidentally, when I searched my favorite photo website for a picture of an old TV with rabbit ears to use for this post,  it gave me—rabbits. Yes, times have changed. Thanks for the story, Kathleen!