Flash Back- really old TVs

Are you tired of the commercials and crawls along the bottom of your TV screen about The Big Switch happening in Feb to digital TV broadcast? Well take a break from the modern technology madness and lets visit a time when rabbit ears on the top of the TV was super high tech!!

This is a photo of me in front of a very modern TV, indeed!!

The post that includes this photo and a great vintage TV ad can be viewed by clicking here.

I have another photo of a different TV that came to live with us in our home after this one for many, many happy years of viewing-- everything from Bozo The Clown to the day that we all watched the first man step onto the moon to M*A*S*H!!

Taken Christmas Eve in the 1970s, that photo shows me in front of the huge console TV sitting on the floor, and I was playing the violin for the family.

First of all, we all know you don't sit on the floor to play a concert quality performance-duh!

Second of all, I can't find the photo right this minute so you will just have to wait.

I know you will feel disappointment and probably some stress over the wait. I apologize.

Recently my brother came to my house to take this TV to his house for display and keeping. I suddenly realized, as it was out in the driveway waiting to be loaded for the transport, that I should take some snaps of it. The kids laughed, "Look at mom taking pictures of the TV, silly Mom!"
Many years ago when Grandpa went to assisted living (he lived to almost 100!) , our grandparent's (Dad's side of the family) home was closed. I became the caretaker of this so it would not end up in a stranger's home from the estate sale. I never had a perfect place to display it.
In the meantime my oldest brother, who will be 60 on Christmas day, built a giant log home along the historical Maumee River which he has filled with tons of vintage items. Lots of the treasures that fill it are family items, some are from here or there locally and from his travels. I love the cozy, everyday life feel of the collections that accent every floor of the 3 story log home and the 2 floors of wrap around porches. My dad, on the other hand, thinks it is only clutter, and he is not afraid to say so! "Who has a croquet set in their breakfast room?", asks my dad.
I think it is super cool. It is the family set of old wooden mallets and balls, with wickets in the original rack that has been played with by generations of our family.
Also on display is the cabinet maker's tool set in a very impressive wooden tiered tool box that belonged to our great grandpa (Mom's side of the family)-- He was told he needed to get a respectable job to marry my great grandma in 1903. He had been a trapeze artist with the Ringling Bros Circus. You can read about it here.

Anyway, My brother remembers watching TV

on this TV at our grandparent's house when he was a little boy.

My childhood memories of the TV are that it was always downstairs in their finished basement and was a different source of entertainment for me. I liked to open the doors over and over- the record player was just like the action of a pop up book and the other doors revealed things behind them like a lift the flaps picture book. I'm sure I was yelled at for doing that (the times I was caught, anyway!) On top sat a big snow globe with a dog inside of it (the RCA Victor  his Master's Voice dog) and a TV light that was a pair of horses side by side like a silhouette.

(Do you remember TV lights? They were novelty lights with low wattage bulbs.)

One of my brothers took the light and I don't know who got the snow globe.

You can see another fun vintage TV ad
I posted a while ago by clicking here.


These are original records from our grandparent's house, 78, 33 and 45 speed. The green book standing upright is a collection of 78 speed jazz records. Even the original receipts and warranties are still keep inside this area of the cabinet too!

I forgot to mention that in the photo above that shows the record player, one of the records on the turntable is a 45 speed record for training your Canary!

The paper is still on the back. I don't think it explains how to hook up cable vision, satellite dish, VCR, DVD, Blue Ray, high definition or digital compatibility!!

These are some of the things I also sent to my brothers house.
A 45 year old doll buggy, a mallard weather vane, a brass fireplace screen (he has several fireplaces)...
...a pottery Indian style lamp, Indian drum, mantel clock, brass and wrought iron wall brackets, a chrome leg chair that belongs to the enamel top table he already has that belonged to our grandparents, 2 willow branch mini chairs, wood and metal Bissel Sweeper made in Grand Rapids MI., and an RCA Victor radio/record player. ( the gas grill with rusty LP tank in the background was a sorry mistake in the aesthetics of this photo!

(this RCA VICTOR record player is a far cry from the modern ipod that everyone now takes for granted!)

All of these things will be a part of his home, which is a lesson in the history of how we have lived over the generations. My kids love to go to their uncle's house. They call it the museum! It is a kind of game to find new things or the placement of things we have given to him.
It is like a never ending I Spy Game!!