
When you woke up this morning, many of you probably turned on the television to catch the latest headlines and the traffic before heading out to work. Yet this morning routine was not always possible, as many of you probably know!
The invention of television, and eventually color television, has changed quite a lot in our society. Although I cannot recall a time when there were not televisions, it is possible that many of you can. Before television everyone got their news (be it real or fake wars of the world) through radio. When the first TVs came along, they were small tube ones similar to the one shown in today’s picture. One constant through the years is that even back in the mid-1900s televisions were still quite costly. I remember hearing stories about how people would gather around their neighbor’s tiny television set, the only one on the block, in order to watch big events such as the Moon landing. It wouldn’t be long, however, until color televisions were invented and shortly thereafter became widespread. In hindsight, it really is impressive that over roughly 50 years television has become a staple in the American household and has had a massive effect on all of our lives.
There are many ways that television has effected all of us, and I’m sure you readers can think of many! But did you know that apparently people only began to dream in color when color TVs were created? It is an interesting thing to think about, since we could see color long before a TV could display it. Why would we only start to dream in color then? Of course, not everyone does dream in color, so maybe people simple started to report it more. We may never know! Do you have any memories of television and how it impacted your life? Perhaps you can remember the first time your family got a TV? Let us know in the comments and come back next week for another Hometown Heritage blog!