Howde Folks,,
For our final November nostalgia we are looking at the time when Lady M purchased a new Freeview television set and cried tears over the death of her beautiful 1989 tv/combi set.(First posted 17/04/2015) The age of technology is the present but the future? Well, we could tell you but that would be cheating. You just have to wait and see! Btw did you know that she still has a beautiful 1980's television set in a wooden surround in her library? She really will cry when that one finally gives up the ghost. Right now, it works on one of those digital conversion things. So enjoy!
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This week, I am tackling modern technology. My beautiful 1989 tv/combi with a video recorder, (not even a DVD recorder), yes, it was really old, has finally given up the ghost. It has been collected by scrap metal merchants this morning. In its place, I have a new flat screen, 24" Toshiba model, with built-in Freeview, DVD, Wi-Fi and... Well, I'm still exploring.
While, I'm exploring, I'm thinking back to 1958, and my excitement, because we were having a television. I remember that square, heavy, object with a screen, two main knobs, and smaller ones for things like, vertical/horizontal hold, arriving and being placed in the corner of the lounge. There was a lot of commotion as aerials, (for ITV and BBC), were placed on the chimney, and the whole thing was set up. Yes, only two channels; not 132 which is what I now have. That addition to the furniture remained switched off, until 5:00 pm, each day. Then, it came to life. Programmes! Excitement, even though, it was only in black and white. I was often tempted to turn on that knob (on/off) during the day. What would I have seen? A test card!
Those televisions were, also, good for exercise, because the remote control had not been invented. The phrase "switch/turn it over to the other side" became every day vocabulary. Someone needed to, physically, get up from their chair, and WALK to the set; then, manually switch it onto the other station. There were arguments over which side to watch. Repeats and recording were unknown. You watched it at the set time, or missed it. Forget Catch Up, ITV Player, etcetera. Who can remember tuning it to "Emergency Ward 10"? And the dishy Dr. Kildare?
Long gone and lost days. Days which killed the art of conversation. Days when the idea of starting life on Mars, or one-way tickets to Mars, were more fictitious than "Round the World in Eighty Days". Having a conversation with someone, who you can actually see, on the other side of the world? Definitely, fiction. It was almost sixty years ago. Now, fiction has turned into reality.
I have a Router enabling me to have Wi-Fi on this computer, my iPad and the new television. I have a mobile phone where I can text, albeit slowly, and send a message in seconds to anywhere around the globe. The Internet and www. with emails means that communication, and business transactions, can be completed in seconds. Writing cheques is something which has become a mystery to the younger generation, and soon will probably be as extinct as dodos. 21st century technology has made things easier, quicker and certainly less taxing.
My questions, and concern are, What next? and where will it all end?
Please, feel free to comment if you share my memories or have concerns/ideas about our future.
Love to you all, Donald and Sofia xxxxx
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