A large ten inch screen
. Gary who used his middle name Mike until junior high, finding an unannounced new arrival, not a clue from his parents that it would suddenly appear, the elder Willson consulting no one, including Mike’s mother of his decision to purchase a Television, his dad having bought it at the Eastmont Wiseman Store. Mister Wiseman saying he would take $20 off the payments for every customer his Dad sent him who bought one.
. The family having just acquired the 19 37 De Soto, the old 29 Chevy, relegated to history, and now this, a television. Spontaneous elation erupting from Mike and his Sisters, an air of ascendancy beginning to prevail, no others in his elementary class had ever mentioned watching television. but on a prior occasion he did experience this new diverting entertainment device at Larry Smoot’s house, having got acquainted with Larry at the playground after school. Larry a year older, was noted for two things, his kickball ability, and that his parents owned an Ice Cream Fountain Shop on Foothill Blvd. Mike always conjured that the latter was the reason for Larry’s popularity.
. His sisters, Kaye and Nancy were overjoyed, and he too was excited with the Magnavox television, it wasn’t a six or eight, but a large ten inch screen. The television’s place of confinement would be in the living room beside the front door entrance, across from the piano. The inside antenna having an extra-long cord, every time you changed one of the three San Francisco channels you would have to move the antenna to another position in the room, and for some reason, the best reception was across the room on the piano, therefore the extended cord ended up blocking the front door entrance. The captive television bringing a change to everyone’s evening, after supper Mike and his sisters, who normally found outside activities, were captivated and held prisoner by a television. For a time the Willson’s tv was the talk of the neighborhood, but soon television expansion blossomed, and became commonplace.
. Mike soon discovering television didn’t offer the suspense and drama that you could implant in your mind reading a book, or listening to an adventure on radio. He reasoned that you were nothing more than an observer to the small screen projection, but with radio you became part of the program, virtually able to place yourself at the scene, listening to the conversations and emitting sound effects, the back ground music, setting the ambiance merging with events, a feeling of presence, and a conscious means to leave reality.
. For now, many of his radio programs were still accessible, Straight Arrow, with its cards separating the cereal rows in Nabisco Shredded Wheat, Bobby Benson and the B Bar B Riders, and of course The Shadow, and I love a mystery. Also hearing Sky King, his plane Songbird was to join The Lone Ranger and Cisco Kid, who had made the transition to Television.
. Mike’s radio in his room with its programing provided an open door to the world, but he knew it had already begin to close. The likes of Kukla Fran and Olive, Howdy Doody, the music of Harry Owens and the Royal Hawaiians, the game shows and the Hoot Gibson, Ken Maynard movies from the past, didn’t spark his interest. TV wasn’t that impressionable to a boy his age, Mike knowing, with the transition of radio to television, another adventure opportunity lay ahead, it was called life.
Inquisitive Quest 