When TV came to central Oregon it came out of Portland and you got a signal that was split. Everything had a shadow, you saw two Lone Rangers, two Lassies. The antenna was up on the highest part of our roof. Being in snow country we also had a very steep roof. We also have a lot of wind on the plains of central Oregon. All of this combined made watching tv a chore. The wind would always readjust the antenna and someone would have to go on the roof and start turning it slowly and someone inside watching the TV. One person would have to stick his head out the window and relay instructions. When you got the adjustment right and put the ladder away you could watch TV until the wind blew the antenna off course again. No matter how many lines you put on it the wind was the master and that antenna would move.
If you lived in a hole instead of up on the plains you could not get TV at all. In those days baseball and fights were the thing to watch. All of our friends that lived in the holes would come to the house to watch. A lot of our Native Americans would come up. That is how I learned to dig roots. Us kids would head out and dig roots to eat and play baseball while the parents watched the fights on TV.
TV changed our lives. We were no longer back woods kids, we saw how to do things which got us in more trouble then anyone thing that happened in our lives.
The day we waxed the floor with areowax (see previous story) was because on TV it looked like the wax was 6” deep and so shiny.
We made our electric swords (from sword fights on TV looking like it was fun (see previous story)
We saw some parachutes on TV with people jumping and just floating down to earth. Yep, you are right we had to try it. The Miller kids and us went and each got a sheet and out to the barn we went. That was the tallest thing we could think of. We all climbed up into the loft, grabbed each corner of the sheet, yell Geronimo and jumped. Lucky for us the loft door was above where the hay was feed which made for a soft enough landing we were not hurt. Well we had the wind knocked out of us and our pride was really hurt when dad got a hold of us.
Lesson one. Dad said “think things through”
Lesson two: Never agree to jump all at once, wait until last to see how it goes before you are stupid enough to jump.
Lesson three: To many of these incidents makes you afraid of heights when you grow up.
I know also I used to know these bible quotes and did not know why. Well one year when I was on graveyard in dispatch I was up on my day off watching TV land with all the old shows. The Lone Ranger was on, he was quoting the bible like mad. I swear when he hit someone he would say “an eye for an eye”
There will be more stories as to what TV brought to Central Oregon. The doctors are right watching TV is dangerous to your health.
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