Reactions to old TVs

[bgadow]

Well, today was the hobby fair in our small town. I took plenty of radios but only one tv, and was debating which one to take. Finally settled on the Transvision, a '49 12" model. (kit tv) Its in a console cabinet so I just pulled the chassis (easy to do since it was never bolted down, just pull the knobs and out she goes) Hooked it up to a vcr playing "The Life of Riley". It was a real hit, almost everyone commented on it. Struck up a number of good conversations thanks to having that on display: guys who's father or uncle had built a tv from a kit; people reminiscing about their first set; many were amazed that such an old set could be hooked to a vcr; one of the local tv repairman stopped by & was telling me how he wished (for my sake) that he had saved all the stuff he'd thrown out over the years. He told about one old building here in town that was remodeled, I think in the late 80s, and the attic had been full of tv's and radios, and apparently they were all trashed because nobody was interested. I noticed that none of the kids were particulary interested, save for one young guy with quite a hobby: building all sorts of "toy" firearms, like "shock guns" powered by model train transformers and 9 volt batteries and capacitors out of disposable cameras and other evil stuff like that. He was really eyeing the can caps in the Transvision!