To buy? or not to buy? - that was the question

"Wait," said my brother, the expert on such matters, "till the quirks are out and the prices come down. Remember when radios cost hundreds of dollars?" He reminded the more impatient members of the family, "and now you can get a good set for ten."

My neighbor, however , was a leader in the march of progress - $400 worth of tubes wires, condensers and a 22 inch screen. We went to see the "wonder. Mickey Mouse came over very clearly. It was a queer feeling having pictures coming out of the radio. The children were transfixed. They sat through Charlie Chan, Howdy Doody, the six o'clock news and a sermon by Bishop Murphy. It made no difference to them. Just pictures! Homework was forgotten. Games were neglected, skates grew rusty. They suddenly developed a tremendous friendship for Stevie. Poor Stevie! It wasn't he they were interested in. It was his Cyclop's eye that called them.

Their teachers complained that they were falling down in their studies. It was no wonder. They spent every free moment with Stevie. Forbid them? I tried. Might as well have tried to stop Niagara.

Stevie's mother stood it for about a month. "I wish you wouldn't send (I sent?) your kids here to watch the television," she complained. "Stevie gets too wild and besides they're wearing out my good living room furniture."

The kids begged for a set of their own but I was firm. "Don't be so lazy. Read a book" Television was a menace!
Television soon became a status symbol. It was no longer, "to buy or not to buy. It had become "To be mahogany or walnut."
Some friends condescendingly admitted to two sets. It's too noisy. All the bang bang bang of those endless Westerns that the kids are forever listening to. We finally had to buy an extra set for them which we now keep in the "television "room.

Socially, I was slipping. "Sorry, we can't come for dinner," I was told, "There's a program we just can't miss. Nothing personal, of course. Socially, I was losing ground fast. A whole new television vocabulary smothered the teacups. I was a fossil of the pre-television era.

Socially, I was finished! It happened on a week-end visit to a friend on Long Island. I confess, I was piqued by the "charming" breakfast conversation on television. I had to listen to with my cornflakes. I, too, had something to say. I was insulted by the pre-cooked frozen rewarmed television lunch I was handed in front of the idol. In the evening, I couldn't take those geniuses asking and answering $64,000 questions and I couldn't stand the sight of my friends, glassy eyed in television stupor.

I made a dash for it! I seized the switch of the set and turned it off.
"I have a question" I hurriedly interjected. What's the opium of the people" and before my good friends could get over the shock, I answered my own question.
"Television" I shrieked hysterically.
But I gave it one more try. Israel was to be admitted to the United nations. Our Zionist group made arrangements to watch it together on television. We saw everything. That is everything that the television technician found interesting for us. He televised a lot of Arabs. Perhaps if we had had some Jews there with flowing beards and minky streimels, he would have found us picturesque as well. As I remember it, the Arabs won the footage, though we won the day.

We saw the little fat delegates and the tall skinny ones, the bald, the hairy, the black, the brown, the white all getting up to say "I do" for Israel.
It was thrilling. It was almost like being there.
Television was marvelous!
I got home. "Wasn't it marvelous?" my mother raved." I heard the whole thing on the radio It was almost like being there.
People from all over the world saying, "I do" for Israel.
My father bought every afternoon paper in New York City. He couldn't read the story often enough. He weighed the speeches. He studied the commentaries. He counted votes. He became an expert on "Israel enters the Family of Nations".
Television, radio. newspapers. It was all marvelous.

It was so marvelous, in fact, that shortly thereafter, we came to Israel, the battle of the 22 inch screen left far behind.
Some weeks ago, I was in New York. I decided to be a "good fellow". "What's new in television?" I asked jauntily.
"Television?" they looked at me curiously. "We hardly look at it anymore".