Tales of the Old Farts Club

[the watcher]

People under 50 probably can't identify with the good old days, but it was so different. When I was about 8 or 9, that would be around 1956, we had a little black and white tv like everyone else, with 3 channels that shut down from 11 o'clock to around 5 am. The adults started talking about pay tv, and of course no one talked to the kids. So we started discussing it in school, how much would we have to pay to watch Superman. We usually wound up at someone's house to gang watch and play monopoly or trade comics, but this was serious. I imagined a big coin box they would attach to the tv, probably bigger than the tv itself, like the ones on the washers and dryers downstairs. We'd all have to have bags of dimes and quarters, and they'd have to have someone come to the house and collect the coins. I really thought that would be a pain in the ass. I don't know if it's better or worse today.

 

[1srelluc]

People under 50 probably can't identify with the good old days, but it was so different. When I was about 8 or 9, that would be around 1956, we had a little black and white tv like everyone else, with 3 channels that shut down from 11 o'clock to around 5 am. The adults started talking about pay tv, and of course no one talked to the kids. So we started discussing it in school, how much would we have to pay to watch Superman. We usually wound up at someone's house to gang watch and play monopoly or trade comics, but this was serious. I imagined a big coin box they would attach to the tv, probably bigger than the tv itself, like the ones on the washers and dryers downstairs. We'd all have to have bags of dimes and quarters, and they'd have to have someone come to the house and collect the coins. I really thought that would be a pain in the ass. I don't know if it's better or worse today.

I can remember coin boxes on motel TVs.

They were really a thing in the UK.

 

[lg325]

I can remember coin boxes on motel TVs.

They were really a thing in the UK.

And Bus stations.

 

[the watcher]

My first job when I got out of the navy in 1970 was at the Western Electric plant on Eads Street in Arlington. I actually knocked off the coin slots on pay phones and buffed and painted them, installed new coin mechs for refurbishing. That pretty much sucked, and I joined the local elect union #26. That sucked too, but paid more.

 

[DGS49]

I don't remember television programming ending at eleven. Maybe that was a Central Time Zone thing. From my earliest recollection, we had the eleven o'clock news, followed by Jack Paar, or someone similar, with the networks signing off at midnight. As for cable TV, I heard once that the telephone wiring that came into our homes starting in the late 60's included a couple extra connectors, in anticipation of a time when programming could be brought in by the phone cable. AT&T was looking ahead.