Strange, But True.

[Ninurta]

I hear what you are saying and it got me to thinking as well.

I grew up with the Sears and Roebuck, and the Montgomery Wards catalog, and the radio.

My family was the first in the community to have a TV set, and it made our house the neighborhood community hang out. It wasn't on that much, the channels were few, and the broadcasting stopped after a certain hour, and all you got was a test pattern. It held little interest for us children, our golden time was outside, trying to find something that would eventually get us in trouble. In other words, we did our job as children.

The time that I not doing chores, I was either in school, I loved school, or I was hunting the woods, with friends, or alone, looking for berries, or what was on the fruit trees. We had a ton of fruit trees, and nut trees, that could hold my interest for more than a spell. Had to watch out for snakes, and for any other thing of interest that may be about. I also read a lot, and when you live in a house with twelve people, the peace of the woods, filled the bill for a lot of your needs.

When I reached the age of covetousness, the only place that I could see things that I did not have, but we're available, were in those catalogs. My world vision was still very small. I had all I needed, and all I really wished for, was the sun to take longer to go down, and quicker to come up. I was a near teen, so the first things I wanted was clothes. I could forget about buying them, but my Mother was a master at looking at something, grabbing a paper bag, making a pattern and reproducing it. The only thing I really craved, really pined for, back then, was growing up. So I could get a job and move away from my boring country roots.

Most folk back then got pleasure from what they had around them, what they could make, or build, and what they could share. The majority of our dreams, were within touching distance, or it was placed in the category of silly, fantasy, or just plain crazy.

With TV came visions of all that you never knew you were lacking. From your homes, to your relationships, and your life, you were left with the feeling of never quite making it, never being able to have it all, and the feeling of being less than.

That is what the TV brought into our lives. It was an instrument that stole your joy and replaced it with visions of an unrealistic world, and with wants that never end, and never quite fulfill. That was the TV, the mother of disappointment. Then came the computer, and we have not seen all the destruction it has yet to bring us.

Just sharing my melancholy thoughts of the moment.

I recall those days too, the days of mail-order, where you would get a catalog, see something that struck your fancy and so then order it, and then expect to wait 4 to 6 weeks - or sometimes longer - for delivery. Folks these days would lose their ever lovin' minds if they had to wait that long to get their stuff, but I do think it created a stronger appreciation for what you got, the waiting to get it.

It also seems to have developed a patience that is sadly lacking in modern technocratic internet-based societies.

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