Oh Lord, Won’t You Buy Me a Color TV? 10.11.17

This photo both amuses and delights me. It was in the stash of photos I found recently when rummaging through a box of papers and such that belonged to my aunt.

A bit of background: My Aunt Alice was born in 1910 in Taylor, TX. just north of Austin. She was one of five children (my dad was the youngest). She came to San Antonio as a young woman where she went to business college. After completing her coursework she began a career in civil service working at one of the many army bases in San Antonio where she stayed until she retired. She passed away in 1992. She never married. She was what was referred to back in the day as an “old maid”. She lived with two sisters, Pearl and Laverne, who were also old maids. Laverne passed away when I was a child and I have no memory of her, but I got to know Pearl quite well. Pearl was crazier than a Kraft Food recipe. And she was LOUD. One of my favorite memories of her was when I invited my aunt and her to lunch at my home shortly after I bought it. Pearl liked her beer (though oddly, not Pearl) so I made sure I had a cold one ready for her when they got there. She proceeded to get settled on the sofa and told me that she wanted to call her nephew who lived in Austin (this was 1990, pre-cell phone) and so I handed her my cordless phone that was the size of a brick. Her nephew answered and after exchanging their hellos, she bellowed into the phone, “WHAT AM I DOING? I’M SITTING ON A BLACK LEATHER SOFA DRINKING A BEER AND TALKING TO YOU ON A CORDLESS TELEPHONE, THAT’S WHAT I’M DOING!” Living large came easily to Pearl.

But back to my aunt; she lived a comfortable life without trappings or pretense. She owned a modest home. She drove a Dodge. When I was in San Antonio and would take her to dinner at Earl Abel’s you would have thought we were dining at Alinea. She would order a Whiskey Sour before dinner and afterwards she would take any leftover scraps from her meal (admittedly there weren’t many) and put them in a baggie she kept in her purse to give to her dog when she got home. In her world little things took on far greater significance than they do for most of us today.

The photo is dated May 1973 and if I had to guess, I would say that that was probably a brand new color TV she had purchased, undoubtedly her first. And she was so proud of it she took a photo of it. Can you imagine being so excited about your new flat screen HDTV that you wanted to take a picture of it? And with a camera that that used film that you had to drop off at the Photo Hut for 24 hour processing? Yeah, I’m down for double prints.

What once was considered extravagant is now common place. We are jaded. And while I don’t advocate worshiping at the altar of consumer goods, wouldn’t it be nice to experience that kind of excitement again? The closest present day thing I can think of that generates a fever pitch is each subsequent release of the iPhone. This go around should be even more so since the iPhone X promises to be the very definition of Go Big or Go Home.

I can only hope that when I’m 80 I get invited to one of my friend’s children’s homes and ask to use their phone so I can tell the person I’m calling, “WHAT AM I DOING? I’M SITTING ON A SOFA UPHOLSTERED IN WHALE FORESKINS DRINKING A HANDCRAFTED ELDERFLOWER CORDIAL AND TALKING TO YOU ON AN IPHONE XX, THAT’S WHAT I’M DOING!” I shall live large to the end.