In a NutshellA place set aside to answer 201 autobiographical questions
from a mother for her daughter. This may take awhile...join us if you like.
21. My family's first TV set was in the year 1953. My favorite TV show was.
We got a TV when I was 11 and we were living in Denver. Forrest and I were entranced with it. It didn't occur to us to watch it when we could be outside playing, but on cold, snowy days -- and since we moved from sunny Puerto Rico to Denver in January, at first they were all cold, snowy days, it was a thing to do when you came in to warm up. Forrest's favorite program was Hopalong Cassidy and mine was Captain Video and the Video Rangers. Science fiction had raised its presence in my life. I remember walking home with the cold wind in my face and wishing that I had a space helmet like the Captain did.
The other thing I remember about TV in Denver is a public service announcement that had a peach pit and an apple core dancing, and singing:
"As the peach pit said to the apple core
The color of your skin doesn't matter any more."
In 1953! Absolutely amazing. And I know for sure that was 1953, because in 1954 we had moved to El Paso, and I never saw that PSA again.
3 comments:
Too funny! I also remember not wanting to watch tv if I could be outside, but gosh, we didn't have as many choices back then, did we? By the time we moved to CA and cable, the TV was a mighty siren indeed, and would pull me in from off of my bike.
The first PSA I remember was for not tailgaiting. It wasn't for kids, obviously, because they don't drive, but that's the one I remember.
Unrelated, but I also remember being terrified of getting an ear infection, because of a health video we saw at school, where they said that an untreated ear infection could cause deafness, and I thought they meant DEATHNESS, and that it would kill me. Hey, I was in Kindergarten at the time. :)
I can't believe this! I "Googled" some lyrics that had lodged into my brain . . . this jingle that I remember from my early childhood . . "the peach pit said to the apple core, 'The color of our skin doesn't matter anymore.'" We hadn't had a TV very long, and I was fascinated with this particular little bit of animation. Your mention of 1953 sounds about right--I would be have been about four years old, in Atlanta, segregated, Georgia. This PSA must have made quite an impression on a little white girl who sometimes went to the "wrong" water fountain (because I couldn't read the signs that said "White" and "Colored," and no one would explain the situation to me--perhaps because they couldn't, perhaps because they were just too ashamed). At that time, we didn't even have public television, but we did have civil rights committees, one of which must have been responsible for this PSA (the National Urban League, maybe?). In any case, my "Google" led me to your wise and wonderful Web site. Thank you so much for your gift to the cyber community!
Now I'm a teacher in a very diverse high school. I tell students my early recollections, and you can hear a pin drop (a rare occurrence among teens!).
I remember that PSA in Portland in the 50s and 60s. We didn't get our TV until February 1955!
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