REMEMBERING CHAUNCEY STREET 8.Television by Patricia Jones [Pat Aronica]

Freddy and me c. 1946, about five years before we had a TV.

One modern convenience we did have was a television. We got it about the time that the “I Love Lucy” show started. When the show first aired (October 1951), my brother, Fred, was 14 and I was 10 years old. Freddy and I were the youngest of the 6 children. 

Freddy was always tinkering with radios and the like. He became “friends” with a store owner on Howard Ave. who operated a repair shop for radios and televisions. Somehow, Freddy acquired a console TV that needed fixing. It was a monstrosity. It was almost as large as the refrigerator, with a picture screen of maybe 4 inches by 5 inches. Someone had to hold on to the antenna from across the room, and even then, the picture looked like a canceled postage stamp. 

Freddy with our nephew, Jimmy, c. 1953.

In time, the television was moved into the back bedroom across from the bunk beds. We thought that sitting on the top bed was like sitting on the balcony of a movie theatre. Reception was so erratic, that we got to watch some shows and not others. Eventually, just before we moved away from Chauncey St., my parents bought a working television. 

© 2013, Patricia Jones