Radio was easier. You could continue what you were doing or drop everything and just listen. The choice was yours. Television was different, a wolf dressed in radio clothing that demanded your entire attention. And this seemed apparent from the very start.
The first television in our neighborhood as I was growing up was just about my size back then, a little over three feet tall. And it came with a small 4x 6-inch screen that held a commanding presence. Viewing was only by select invitation. The room must be dimmed to darkness meaning all curtains and drapes were meticulously drawn completely closed in daytime. And we kids sat cross-legged on the bare living room floor in three even rows, movie theater style or homage style. I was never sure. No wonder Hollywood became so aggravated by the new contraption.
As TV screens grew larger, they became easier to find. You only had to look around in a store for the cluster of people gathered in one single spot, watching, and you knew where the TVs were. Out on the street it was worse. Crowds of people collected in front of store windows to watch the television, and they filled the sidewalk. The sincere pedestrian had to take to the street to get past the watchers, who were oblivious to all but the black and white screen. If avocation is a drawing away or distraction for pleasure, then indeed, television was it.
Our own “avocation” finally showed up one day, a 21-inch, wood cabinet console model. It was immediately given a special corner holding a command view of the entire living room. But our avocation seemed to grow into a religious vocation as we learned the ritual of adjusting the rabbit ears and tuning the channel dial. And just as in church, there were many opinions as to the correct way of carrying out that ritual with the difference being everyone in church didn’t try to out shout the other with advice on the correct way of carrying it out. Thank God there were only two TV stations in those days.
One of those television stations took us back to an avocation. They began broadcasting the Saturday morning line up. The school week was over, the weekend was ahead of us, and after breakfast (no eating in front of the TV!) we settled on the floor in front of the TV to watch all of our kids shows and cartoons.
Today the golden age of television is gone and the medium has grown with the advent of satellite communication, optic fiber networks, flat screen TVs and home theater systems. Maybe an avocation really has become a vocation. Or maybe even Robert Frost has been trumped. He wrote:
But yield who will to their separation,
My object in living is to unite
My avocation and my vocation
As my two eyes make one in sight
Frost “Two Tramp in Mud Time” (1934)
Maybe what we have now is beyond Frost’s idea of uniting avocation and vocation. Maybe, when no one was watching, we now have an obsession. A TV that goes where we go. A TV in our pocket. Our smart cell phones.
Milt Footer is a retired first responder who lives in Seattle. This story was in response to a writing prompt: What television show or series have you become passionate about? Part of a collection of questions addressing Avocations: Hobbies, Passions, and Obsessions at the Greenwood Senior Center’s Write About Your Life group.
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