Comments on: Boy, Did I Love Lucy: A Mini-Memoir

By: shirleyhs

shirleyhs — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 07:03:52 +0000

Tmm2d, Thanks for stopping by. I know what you mean about nostalgia. Those old shows seem so tame and innocent now–and I don't think they illustrate real life either then or now.

I don't know if there is one perfect approach to TV. But for sure it is wise to curtail total access. My love of reading might never have happened without the TV restrictions I had in my youth.

By: shirleyhs

shirleyhs — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 23:03:52 +0000

Tmm2d, Thanks for stopping by. I know what you mean about nostalgia. Those old shows seem so tame and innocent now–and I don't think they illustrate real life either then or now.

I don't know if there is one perfect approach to TV. But for sure it is wise to curtail total access. My love of reading might never have happened without the TV restrictions I had in my youth.

By: Tmm2d

Tmm2d — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:30:06 +0000

I remember when our neighbors got the first color TV in our lower-middle class neigborhood…we saw the Wizard of Oz in color (I was about four years old) but it made in impact on me. We never were allowed to have the TV on during meal times which forced us all to get to know each other…or be lectured to …I don't have anything against TV but I am selective on what I watch now but I really get a lump in my throat when I see some of the old “leave to Beaver” or “father knows best” shows…was life really like that????

By: shirleyhs

shirleyhs — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 16:55:10 +0000

I agree completely with the emphasis on creativity without TV. I wish we had had the courage to disconnect completely when our kids were young, but we definitely curtailed and monitored.

Thanks for the story about the little black and white TV. When my parents finally broke down and let me buy a TV when I was 17, I bought a little black and white portable set. Cost $120. My parents bought it from me when I went to college–sent me $2/week all year long. That was my spending money. Don't I sound old? Oh, that's right. I AM old.

By: mmilne

mmilne — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 20:54:48 +0000

I, like Eric, credit where I ended up in life to not having a TV. I had to entertain myself (especially since my sisters were so much younger than me), so rather than watching them on a screen, I made up my own stories and grew to be a writer, actor, and director!

I can relate, though, to feeling like everyone was talking about some other world at school, and wishing I could take part. In fifth grade or so, we had to do a TV assignment where we did some basic media critique (tallying how much time was spent on commercials during two hours of television programming, what kind of imagery was used, etc) and I had to go knock on the neighbors' door to complete the assignment. They only had a black and white TV, though, so I couldn't answer the questions on how color was used to affect the imagery…

By: shirleyhs

shirleyhs — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 19:54:27 +0000

We had the same experience in Haiti and in the Ivory Coast. We did more cooking and baking and reading together than at any other time. Our children learned to make friends across cultures, including basic language proficiency.

By: Gutsywriter

Gutsywriter — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 02:33:09 +0000

No TV is what we did with our kids when we moved to Belize in 2004, and we didn't have one again until 2007. In a way, those 3 years were the best thing for growing close to one another.

By: shirleyhs

shirleyhs — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 12:39:26 +0000

Fascinating, Eric. Both that you started out as an entrepreneur because you did not have TV as a crutch–and that no one watches the same things every night anymore.

Your creative show-and-tell ideas remind me of my own counter-cultural revolution, the Hikta Stikta Club. I'll have to write about that one another time.

Is the disappearance of the mass market a good thing? When Michael Jackson died, that was one of the comments. He is still a product of a time when 70 million people watched the Ed Sullivan show. No one since then has had that size audience. Yet people in Asia and Africa reach us and vice versa everyday.

By: ekan

ekan — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 00:15:04 +0000

Growing up, we didn't have a TV until I was 8 or so, and then it was a black and white that we snuck in the closet to watch. I'm grateful to my parents, though. I was the kid who brought homemade crafts to show and tell, instead of store-bought toys. According to my mom, some of the other kids starting making things too for show-and-tell. I owe a lot of my entrepreneurial creativity to my early childhood without a TV.

Of course, now, I don't watch TV, I watch Hulu or Netflix. The whole mass market, pop culture phenomenon is disappearing for kids growing up today…