I got to watch TV ’til I turned 5.
It was already gonna go away, but I didn’t know it at the time.
Now, when I watched TV back then, my mom would turn on the TV, I’d watch the show, then she would turn it off. I didn’t get to just watch a continuous stream of shows.
All was well, until the day we moved.
Give me some credit, I was trying to help. But, I watched my dad moving things, picking things up. I wanted to help, too. So, I got behind the TV and lifted with all my 5-year-old strength. And I succeeded in lifting up the TV. Well, the back part of it anyway.
The TV flopped over on the front, shattering the screen. The TV was gone.
I was panicked. My good intentions had not worked out at all. But, to my surprise, no one was angry.
You see, my dad had recently started going to church. And what a church indeed. You see, he had joined a Pentecostal church, and was being taught that a TV was an evil thing. A one-eyed devil. By my destroying the TV, I had just done his work for him. He did not have to take the TV away, he just did not replace it.
And so, for the rest of the time, myself and my 5 siblings were raised without a TV.
Of course, this did not mean I myself had a problem with TV. It simply meant I had to be clever about when I would be able to watch TV. Now, since we were not allowed to hardly associate with anyone that did not go to the same type of church, that made it a bit tougher. I couldn’t just pop over to a friend’s and chill for an hour and catch up on a show.
What this really meant was, in reality I never watched more than maybe two hours of TV total the rest of the time I lived at my dads house.
At school, it was really interesting hearing the other kids talk about shows that I had never seen. They would make references that I never, ever got.
When I became an adult and moved out, you can bet I watched TV. And the old shows were like brand new to me.
Kinda funny when I tell people about this experience, about the way I was raised – which included a whole lot more weirdness than just not watching TV – and seeing their responses, and fielding their questions. I’ll be talking about that weirdness and craziness in upcoming stories.
Do you know anyone raised without TV? Were you? What were your experiences?