I was a TV repairman

In the days of the early 60s I was a TV repairman
Unlike nowadays "made in Japan" was junk,,British motorbikes were king of
the road,and we had "dinner" between 1pm and 2 pm, and had our tea at 6pm
It was a simpler time,where you could always find parking space on any main
street in any town or city ,,[if you were one of the lucky few who owned a
car]
Parking discs or meters were far into the future, as were traffic wardens
A brand new style Ford anglia [you know the one with the rear window
sloping inwards ,and had a heater] could be had from any Ford dealer for
£499
Petrol was 25 pence a gallon
Then came Television
On a cold 1st of January 1962 RTE came on air
For many people on the east coast it was no big deal, they already had BBC
and ITV, but for the people outside the pale it was nothing short of a
revolution
I started a job in a furniture store driving a van,and who sold radio's. so
it was natural they started selling television's, and I got the job of
installing the TVs [£3 a pop, it was great money at the time]
It was a sellers market,people were hungry to have a TV, many could not
afford one as the price was in the £100 range for a 29" B&W [that must be
about euro 2000 at todays prices] so many people bought theit TV on the
"never never"
On every street, in every housing estate in the city, it was known who had a
TV,the aerial on the chimney was almost a status symbol
The neighbours would find an excuse to visit the household that had a TV
after 6pm when the programmes would start
The children of the houses who had TV became very popular with the other
kids on the street
Husbands started staying away from the pub,,until the pubs cought on very
quickly,and installed TV,
Some people turned on their TV at 4 or 5pm,,just to watch the test card
until the programmes started at 6pm, as if not believing that this was
going to be a permanent part of their lives
When a family bought a TV from the store i worked in,everyone on the street
knew and awaited my appearance in my grey Ford van with the ladders on the
roof,,
When i turned into the street lane or avenue to the house whose chimney
awaited the aerial that would bring the magic of moving pictures into the
sitting room of a very excited household, I would be preceded by a group
of very excited children , shouting at the top of their lungs
MAM,,,,MAM,,,THE MAN IS HERE
In so many housing estates around the city when I would return to repair
a faulty TV I was never called anything but "The Man"
The TV brought into people's lives the magic of such programmes as have
gun will travel,,,the donna reed show,,the everglades,,lassie,,[im sure some
of you can remember many more]
By about 1963 Gay Byrne's "late late show appeared on RTE [the longest
running chat show in the world] and as a policitian once said [oliver
flanagan i think] "there was no sex in ireland before the late late show"
because Gay Byrne asked a woman what she wore in bed,,and she replied
"nothing", and nothing was ever the same again
At that time a TV had 13 old fashioned valves, and this generated a lot of
heat,so breakdowns were common,I used to recieve about 6 phone calls a day
reporting a breakdown,
I set of on my rounds every afternoon,sokme sets I could repair on the spot,
and some had to be taken back to the workshop,I always had a few
replacements with me, and if I had to take the precious TV away I always
gave priority to the household with a big family, often to the relief of
the woman of the house.
There was a lot of widows and widowers living alone in the cityf or who the
TV was a lifeline and they always got a replacement without exception,
I once installed a TV in a convent,
There was great excitement amongst the nuns as they all gathered after I
installed the set,
I switched it on to explain to the head bottlewasher nun the knobs and
switches [very simple, we were in one channel land] and behold there was a
farmers programme on,and a farmer was standing over a pig as it gave birth
to a thousand piglets [well it seemed like that to me] as I struggled to
explain to the rev mother the knobs
Im not sure which of our of our faces won 1st prize for being red in
black and white land
>From time to time in those years gone by , if someone important died , like
a cardinal , to the despair of of the children of the nation ,all regular
programmes were were taken off air,and replaced with classicial music
programmes,or religious programmes,,
TV programmes on good friday were almost all religious, and when someone
died on a street,it was normal for it to be waked in the home,,[almost
nobody used funeral parlours] and until the deceased was moved to the
church, all the neighbours would never switch on the TV or Radio,,, and the
children mourned the loss of their favorite TV programmes
I stopped instaling TVs in about 1965,and moved on to other things, but i
still have vivid memorys of bunches of kids running ahead of my van,
shouting MAM MAM THE MAN IS HERE
The early 60s was a more gentle and innocent time
Today we have cable, internet,satelite ect,,but the excitement at the
arrival of Television to Limerick in 1962 will never be forgotten by me
Mul


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: I was a TV repairman
    ... > until the programmes started at 6pm, as if not believing that this was ... > I set of on my rounds every afternoon,sokme sets I could repair on the ... > There was great excitement amongst the nuns as they all gathered after I ... > I stopped instaling TVs in about 1965,and moved on to other things, but i ...
    (soc.culture.irish)
  • Re: I was a TV repairman
    ... >until the programmes started at 6pm, as if not believing that this was ... >I set of on my rounds every afternoon,sokme sets I could repair on the spot, ... >There was great excitement amongst the nuns as they all gathered after I ... >I stopped instaling TVs in about 1965,and moved on to other things, but i ...
    (soc.culture.irish)
  • XP Pro and the case of the changed splash screen
    ... longer for the machine to boot and all the programmes was running slow. ... programme had loaded into memory it worked fine. ... Finished installing and everything run fine. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support)
  • Re: MICROSOFT WORK, INVALID PID NUMBER
    ... On return I have all of the programmes that originally came ... This is a good time to mention that programs like Belarc Adviser become invaluable. ... With the print-out from Belarc before the repair, you would have all the software key codes printed ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support)
  • Re: Unable to remove programmes
    ... >installed it because when I went to the Add/Remove ... >Programmes in Control Panel before installing it, ... installing and uninstallng programs. ...
    (microsoft.public.win2000.general)