Day 67 #100DaysOfOldDays

A telly with no internet, no pause, record or rewind, no remote control, and worst of all…no colour! Just a humongous black and white telly rented from Kellett’s electrical shop in town.

They were always on the blink and as sure as death and taxes, interference would disrupt a good film or the Looney Tunes. When fiddling with the buttons wouldn’t work, a good thump on the side of it often did.

Sometimes the weather and a dodgy aerial was the problem. It wasn’t unusual in those days to see a man on the roof of his house fiddling with the aerial and one of his children below shouting up at him, “Another bit…turn it to the right…another bit to the left,” as they looked through the window at the telly waiting for a clear steady picture.

And when all the DIY solutions failed, David Kellett would pick up the telly and leave a different one in its place. It was a great novelty getting a ‘new’ telly every few months.

There were arguments about whose turn it was to change the station (there was only about 5) or turn up the volume. It wasn’t a job for the weakest family member because you needed strength to be able to push those buttons!

I’d say it was around the mid-seventies when our neighbours, Anne and Noel Rogers, got a new colour telly and Lynda brought me in to see it. I couldn’t take my eyes off it. I was amazed at the vibrant colours and how they lit up the whole room. I wanted to stay all night in front of the blazing fire in the open hearth watching their new colour telly.

We used to look at our black and white telly through plastic coloured wrappers to pretend it was a colour one.

When we eventually got a colour telly, we thought we were brilliant!

I remember thinking we had really gone up in the world the year we got a Nordmende. I have no idea why! Maybe it had a more stylish look to it!

The other brands I remember: Toshiba, Panasonic, Bush, Philips and Sharp.