[Tubejunke]

Time is a very strange thing to me. Back in the late 80s being fresh out of the army I was strong enough to take on a job delivering furniture. I remember fairly regularly seeing late 1950s black and white sets in people's home as their only set. Usually they were older people who found more to do in life than lay on the couch and watch TV.

Now, some years later we are talking about old color TVs being placed in museums! Wow! I used to pick them up in local shops for $10-$20 whenever I needed a set for my room or to keep use low on my 56 Philco that I still have unrestored & working. This would be in the earlier 80s. I was a bit of a TV & radio buff most of my life. I took electronics in high school (later in college) & I knew a few families who still were using "roundies" daily and since they were getting some age on them by that time they would go out and a few times people had me come over to their place and try to revive them. At that time I was more of a tube changer than anything, but quite often that was the problem and I got to make a few bucks.

When I moved out of my parents house, Dad made sure that any sets I had compiled in the basement went with me, or to the dump. I remember tossing an old dresser that was packed with early color yokes, flybacks, and a big black box that I had yanked out of a remote control roundie. I forget if it was Zenith or RCA now, but I remember that it worked and then got finicky before something else happened to the set and I parted it. Too bad I wasn't more than a tube changer because I parted a lot of sets that I'm positive that there wasn't much wrong with.

And now I'm telling these stories as people evidently are marveling at the examples of life in primitive times with electronics that actually took physical movement to make selections and adjustments. We really had it rough! If I can only learn to type with my thumbs I might seem, or feel, like I've caught up with the world....