The Visitor

[armysc_25b]

A few years after I was born, my Dad met a stranger who was new to our small Texas town. From the beginning, Dad was fascinated with this enchanting newcomer and soon invited him to live with our family. The stranger was quickly accepted and was around from then on.

As I grew up, I never questioned his place in my family. In my young mind, he had a special niche. My parents were complementary instructors: Mom taught me good from evil, and Dad taught me to obey. But the stranger...he was our storyteller. He would keep us spellbound for hours on end with Adventures, mysteries and comedies.

If I wanted to know anything about politics, history or science, he always knew the answers about the past, understood the present and even seemed able to predict the future! He took my family to the first major league ball game. He made me laugh, and he made me cry. The stranger never stopped Talking, but Dad didn't seem to mind.

Sometimes, Mom would get up quietly while the rest of us were shushing each other to listen to what he had to say, and she would go to the kitchen for peace and quiet. (I wonder now if she ever prayed for the stranger to leave.)

Dad ruled our household with certain moral convictions, but the stranger never felt obligated to honor them. Profanity, for example, was not allowed in our home... Not from us, our friends or any visitors. Our longtime visitor, however, got away with four-letter words that burned my ears and made my dad squirm and my mother blush. My Dad didn't permit the liberal use of alcohol. But the stranger encouraged us to try it on a regular Basis. He made cigarettes look cool, cigars manly and pipes distinguished. He talked freely (much too freely!) about sex. His comments were sometimes blatant, sometimes suggestive, and generally embarrassing.

I now know that my early concepts about relationships were influenced strongly by the stranger. Time after time, he opposed the values of my parents, yet he was seldom rebuked... And NEVER asked to leave. More than fifty years have passed since the stranger moved in with our family. He has blended right in and is not nearly as fascinating as he was at first. Still, if you could walk into my parents' den today, you would still find him sitting over in his corner, waiting for someone to listen to him talk and watch him draw his pictures.

His name?....





We just call him 'TV.'

(Note: This should be required reading for every household in America !)

He has a wife now...We call her Computer

[Armed Drill Addict]

I figured it out about a third of the way in. This is a pretty interesting view of the T.V.

[pingjocky]

"High tech babysitter" Many times, parents will plop the kids down in front of the TV and leave them there for hours...letting the kids get their values and morals from the script writers....sad.

R/
Pingjocky

[Smiles]

...and with the rush on cable, as we switch to digital, it's only gonna get worse. My kids might watch an hour of TV a night but it's their homework and chores that they'll see the most of. What ever happened to good moral convictions? Old TV use to make ya wish for the simpler times again and now nobody seems to have enough and they're willing to lie, cheat, steal and kill whomever in order to get it...ain't hardly worth wasting electricity for anymore. Shoot, ya can't hardly find a weather forcast that's near right these days either...more lies Video games ain't much better, sometimes worse in some cases.

I enjoyed your post armysc.

Smiles

[JohnP]

Originally Posted by Smiles

Video games ain't much better, sometimes worse in some cases.

Smiles

You've got to get the Wii.

[Sarah81]

We didn't have a working TV in the house for fourteen months when I was seven and eight years old. Oh, man, did I howl at first over that one. Heh.

But I still thank my Mom and Dad for that every now and then, because it broke the nasty habit early and encouraged me to read a lot more than I would have had the TV been alive and well. I'd like to think that all the books I read were more useful than all the hours of TV that I missed.

[Smiles]

Originally Posted by JohnP

You've got to get the Wii.

We have the Wii. The kids like the beat em up games, I'm thinking Strawberry Shortcake....something sweet and innocent! LOL I played it once, they give ya sport tasks to accomplish and then guesstimate your age, let's just say that I didn't do so well...68yrs old? I'll take my Atari any day over the Wii, still have that downstairs and almost every game they ever put out!

[SGM]

I lived and worked on ranch for a few years, didn't have a TV, never missed it. When I would take my time out, friends and family would be talking about shows and reruns, they would turn to me for my opinion, I had none. They couldn't understand there was life with no TV.