Every once in a while I find an old photograph which brings me back in time. A photo of our old TV sitting in our living room, a piece of furniture for our black and white TV with rabbit ears, one broken, another standing proud.
Back then we had 7 channels to choose from. The three networks, CBS, NBC and ABC. The other channels were for repeats of older TV shows, old movies or sports.
I remember coming home from school, my mom in the kitchen and sitting to watch Lost in Space while she finished making dinner.
There was always something on the TV that would bring my siblings and myself together to watch. I remember calling out to whoever wasn’t ready to watch, “hurry, it’s starting!”
The next day we would sit with our friends and talk about Happy Days, Three’s Company or whatever was the hot show at the time. Charlie’s Angels took my testosterone to another level at my tender age of 14. Remember, “who shot JR”? We waited close to a year to find out. The whole world was talking about it and waiting to find out.
Entertainment was different back then. It had nothing to do with quality, it had more to do with the fact that there was no way to watch a show after it aired unless you waited for the network to run a rerun. Always in the summer, sometimes during the holidays when no first run shows aired.
Music had its day also. I remember waiting for the next Elton John, or Billy Joel album to come out. I would listen to the radio and wait to hear a new song from one of them. When I did, I would try my best to hit “record” on my tape deck so I could listen again. Most of the time I couldn’t find an empty cassette or the song would be ending, so the hunt would begin. I would switch from one radio station to another until I could hear it again. There were no streaming services back then — the only streaming we knew was in bathrooms and rivers. I remember running to the record store and waiting on line to see if any new music was released on singles or albums. I would usually see someone I knew there and we would bond over our favorite artists.
The radio was my best friend for a long time. Listening in my room to WNEW 102.7, 99X, WPLJ 95.5, for music and 1010WINS, where I heard the news and sports updates. I would cherish my time alone in my room listening and choosing what to listen to and what volume.
I am the youngest of five and I was rarely alone growing up until I hit around 13 years old. Good timing for a lot of reasons.
I remember December 8, 1980. I was listening to the radio when an announcement came on saying there was a report that John Lennon had been shot. I ran inside and told everyone. I went back in my room and turned on WNEW because that was the rock station. Suddenly “Jungleland” by Bruce Springsteen came on. I can still hear the words the way I heard them that night — “the Rat’s own dream guns him down… beneath the city, two hearts beat.” I thought about Yoko who in my mind was half of John Lennon. I thought about his new album that I had just purchased. (I think I had just purchased).
During the summer I would listen to the Mets on the radio. If you walked around the streets you would hear transistor radios playing either the Mets or Yankees. Men sitting on the porch, beer and cigarette in hand. Little kids sitting next to them wearing their team’s hat, baseball mitt and a ball in the other hand.
We would talk to each other about baseball and argue why one team was better than the other.
In school we always had something to talk about. Music, TV shows, sports, and girls of course.
We watched the same shows, listened to the same radio stations and would congregate and play baseball cards games.
It was a community. A camaraderie of like minds. Star Trek, which of the angels were your favorite (mine was Jaclyn Smith).
These days the shows can be watched on your phone any time, any where. If you want to hear music you stream it, any song, artist any time.
There is social media which unites and divides us. Everyone is looking at their phones with headphones on. No one talks to each other if you don’t know each other. “Stranger danger” has replaced, “don’t be shy, go and talk.”
There is no one community anymore. It’s been broken apart into a thousand private feeds.
There is nothing really to bond over other than hatred and anger. False narratives and accusations. Harry Chapin had a song, “remember when the music,” which was all about coming together to listen to a song. In a world where one can speak face to face with someone across the planet. Where people can meet online and bond were it not for protective paranoia. It’s a much smaller world, a much insular world. We are sentenced to life in cubicles, self imprisonment and split second attention spans.
But I remember when the music…
#nostalgia #1970s #1980s #brooklyn #classicrock #johnlennon #brucespringsteen #mets #vintageradio #memoir #amwriting #brooklynwriter #nyc
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