The one thing I miss

[oldtvman]

Back in the day walking into a tv store gave you a similar feeling to walking into a new car dealership. The wooden cabinets had a distinctive new set smell.

[kvflyer]

Yes! I am 66 and I remember that. There were shops all over downtown Baltimore and later, there were shops in the suburbs. There was even a Lafayette Radio store about 1.5 miles from our home.

Tubes on the shelf behind the counter and CRTs in stock...

[DavGoodlin]

I was 8 in 1971 when my parents decided to take the plunge into color TV.
The store was a Zenith and Motorola dealer and smelled like a furniture store mixed with warm dusty electronics.

[oldtvsandtoy]

what does any of this have to do with color tv?

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by oldtvsandtoy

what does any of this have to do with color tv?

Buying the first color TV was a special event, for most first buyers.
Most held off buying one until there were more programs in color, which seemed to be around 1965-6.
Also, many stations had the large capital investment of converting to color programming.
It took a while for a few of the networks to set up for color programming, as well.
Maybe this statement, doesn't have anything to do with color TV, either.

[old_coot88]

'Specially when there were used sets for sale, there was the scent of lemon oil and Old English from keeping the cabinets spiffed up

[Kevin Kuehn]

Even Radio Shack smelled good back in the early days.

[zeno]

Originally Posted by old_coot88

'Specially when there were used sets for sale, there was the scent of lemon oil and Old English from keeping the cabinets spiffed up

In our shop it was the smell of smoke. The 4 insiders all smoked
& when you opened the door it would billow out. Smoke while you
sell, fix, talk on phone, eat, or drop a deuce. We smoked like fiends.
Folks were tolerant back then, not like now. Most now try to carve out
a 100 ft radius where anything you do offends them.

BTW the shop remained smoke friendly to the end abt 4 yrs ago.
We were the last Mom & Pop for miles around. One day abt yr 2000
the board of health came by & hung no smoking within 20' of doors
on the whole strip mall. He came in talked while we smoked & said
nothing, bought a new Sony a few weeks later.

73 Zeno

[Pete Deksnis]

Originally Posted by zeno

In our shop it was the smell of smoke. The 4 insiders all smoked
& when you opened the door it would billow out. Smoke while you
sell, fix, talk on phone, eat, or drop a deuce. We smoked like fiends.
Folks were tolerant back then, not like now. Most now try to carve out
a 100 ft radius where anything you do offends them.

BTW the shop remained smoke friendly to the end abt 4 yrs ago.
We were the last Mom & Pop for miles around. One day abt yr 2000
the board of health came by & hung no smoking within 20' of doors
on the whole strip mall. He came in talked while we smoked & said
nothing, bought a new Sony a few weeks later.

73 Zeno

I'd love to continue the thread with my anti-smoking tale. But can't figure how to connect it to a CT-100!

Pete

[DavGoodlin]

Originally Posted by oldtvsandtoy

what does any of this have to do with color tv?

It would be nice to get a picture of a bunch of 21" color sets in a showroom on this thread.

Color TV - like automatic transmission and free long distance, is taken for granted anymore.

What I miss is that experience of looking at all the CRT sets in one place, many places had them on but the three places I worked that sold them did not do that like the department stores.

Again, i miss THAT SMELL To quote one of my favorite bands from the 70s'

"oo-oh that smell, caint cha smell that smell,oo-oh that smell, the smell that surrounds tubes"

[reeferman]

Originally Posted by oldtvman

Back in the day walking into a tv store gave you a similar feeling to walking into a new car dealership. The wooden cabinets had a distinctive new set smell.

I miss 8 track tapes.
LOL

[Jon A.]

Originally Posted by reeferman

I miss 8 track tapes.
LOL

Seriously? And did you get that quote from Married With Children?

I would miss them if I was old enough to remember seeing them in stores. If only they could still be had that easily.

[Sandy G]

I dunno, guys, I made a livin' offa the Evil Weed most of my life-Either growing it as a crop, or printing labels to package it in. There is hardly anything grown on a farm that is HARDER than raising & harvesting Burley Tobacco-It is quite literally a 13 month, 8 day a week job. It is HIGHLY labor intensive, whether its gassing the beds, settling the seedlings, transplanting them to the actual beds, tending the young plants, "Suckering" then topping them, cutting them around Labor Day, hanging them in the barn to cure, grading them & selling them about Christmastime. During the growing season, they get covered w/a sticky "Wax" which makes them MUCH fun to handle. Its ALWAYS about 1500 degrees in the Backer Patch, the plants themselves are flimsy & easily broken, except, of course, when you're trying to cut off extra stalks-"Suckering", & then cutting the blooms off the top-"Topping". These are designed to make the remaining stalk's leaves to get as large as possible, for the best yield. Whrn you cut the plants about Labor Day, you have to hang them in the rafters of yr barn to let them "Cure". THAT'S Big Fun, too, you're 25' in the air, trying to hoist heavy, sappy tobacco plants & hang them on a too-skinny board, not to fall, & not to bump into the plate sized wasp nest right over there. Its also hotter than hell in there, & a barnful of curing tobacco plants puts out a smell that will make yr eyes water. Aroung Thanksgiving-Christmastime, you then have to unload yr crop from the upper reaches of the barn, & try not to destroy the leaves. If its a hopefully damp day, the tobacco will be "In Case", & you can tie it in knots. Otherwise, it is like any other leaf, dry & brittle. Then you put it in big baskets & haul it to market. Hopefully, the buyers won't find too much to fuss about your crop, & you get a nice fat check for Christmas. But if you honestly put all the time you've spent busting yr butt for that Big Fat Check, you'd prolly find you've earned about .75 an hour...

[Jon A.]

...

[Sandy G]

I'd LOVE to have all you smokers talk to my Mom... But you CAN'T-She died Aug 208 from COPD, & Emphysema. She smoked from the time she was 15, about 1940, till '77, when she was hypnotized. But the damage was already done. She "Lit one offa one" for most of the 1st 20 yrs of my life. COPD/Emphysema is a nice little disease-Just kills you a LITTLE each day, nothing to bother you with, really... Until you realize that shortness of breath makes you wheeze like you just ran a marathon trying to get from yr bed to the bathroom...