I was in Sam’s this week and walked by the electronics displays. They had a 40-inch flat screen TV for $159, a Smart TV at that. Boy have times changed.
Thinking back, I remember the first TV my family bought. It was in 1954 and folks were just starting to get TVs in their homes. Finally, the day came. The furniture store delivered a 24-inch Sylvania table-top TV, black and white of course. As I recall, it cost $299, a real stretch on a middle-income family budget.
In 1954, the average house cost $22,000, the average family income was about $4,000, a car ran between $1500 and $2400, gas was 21c a gallon and a loaf of bread set you back 17c. Gradually, families began buying owning TVs.
Few had color TVs until the early 60’s, but even the black and white sets were expensive. Three hundred dollars in today’s money would translate into nearly four grand.
The old sets were something else. You turned on the TV and then sat back and waited until the tubes warmed up, and they took their sweet time. Then, on hands and knees, you adjusted the vertical and horizontal knobs, plus the contrast for a semi-clear image. Sometimes you had to wiggle the rabbit ears to bring in the picture. As I said, times have changed.
As a bachelor with my own apartment in 1967, I needed a TV. I went to Sears, naturally, and picked out a 19-inch portable set – it cost $200. I didn’t have that kind of money sitting around back then, but Sears was kind enough to allow me to charge it. If you could walk and chew gum back then, Sears would give you credit. Nancy and I bought almost all our appliances from Sears. I think we had a running balance with them for 40 years.
Then TVs started to drop in price and families began adding sets to their homes. Many had a small TV in the kitchen, others had one on the basement or even on the porch.
But $159 for a 40-inch flat screen? I don’t know how they can even ship one that cheaply. And the quality is unreal. When you watch a football game on one of these new TVs, it’s like you’re sitting in the stands. The pictures are sharp and vivid. No horizontal, no vertical and no contrast knobs to adjust. A perfect picture every time. That’s real quality.
Now, if only the networks could come up with some quality programming to watch – wouldn’t that be something?