The house we lived in had two bedrooms, one for Mom and Dad, the other for us kids. Rick and my bedroom was designed to mimic a sailing ship’s cabin with built in bunk beds, each having there own Porthole window. Each window could actually open, and if I wanted to, I could stick my head out of, which I did quite often!



Next to the bunk beds were built in drawers and cabinets and all the walls in our room had Tung and grooved pine boards that were stained and varnished. On the ceiling was a boat steering wheel that was made into a light fixture. When you turned the lights out at night, stars and planets would suddenly appear on the ceiling just like you would see on a clear night on the open sea….. It was very cool!
As time passed my brother Rick wanted his own space so he moved into the basement, it was like having his own apartment. He was then happy and so was I.
In an earlier blog I mentioned a few Television shows that I watched as a kid. One was called the Adventures of Rin Tin Tin. The show was a television hit! It was about a boy named Rusty that was orphaned from an Indian attack, he and his dog Rin Tin Tin were adopted by the troops at fort Apache in Arizona.
Like any kid show, they saw a profit to be made so they started making kid toys that are now collectables.
I don’t remember asking Mom or Dad for any of the toys from the hit TV show but I was given a Rin Tin Tin Fort Apache set.



I had tons of fun on the floor in my room setting up the fort and fighting the Indians. By the way, if your being attacked by Indians you just had to have music playing in the back ground on my old suitcase record player.



The only record I had at the time was a 45 rpm called Davy Crocket King of the Wild Frontier, that I played over and over and over during the Indian attacks…… Ah the good old days!
Another game I played in my room was with a card board box. If you take the box apart and lay it flat on the floor it looked like the letter “t”. On the top of the “t” I would draw a face. The left and right side of the flat box were the arms and at the bottom of the “t” were the legs. It then became a pirate. Why a pirate? Remember ! Because you’re in a ships cabin. Or maybe my box would become a see monster?! I also had Dominos that I had fun setting up in long rows on my floor, I always enjoyed knocking them over and hearing the clicking noise when they hit each other as they were falling down. Another game was stacking playing cards on top of each other to make a tall structure then shooting rubber bands at it. Then there was always game of marbles. If I ran out of stuff to do I could always stick my head out the porthole window!
Grandpa Tom

Back in the 50’s and early 60’s when I was very young, my dad had two jobs. At least it seemed like two jobs. During the day he worked as a machinist from 8:00 AM till 4:30 in the after noon. Then when he returned home, his second job would start….Well maybe I should say, his self made volunteer work would start. And that work was to……Adjust our Black and White Television set. 

This being our first TV always had fuzz, flickering, or static on the screen. It never seemed to go away. I think the main reason for all this interference was that we had no outside antenna.
In the dictionary...It states it’s a “device”. A metallic piece of equipment of variable shape, used in the sending and receiving of television or radio signals. To receive the best possible signals, the antenna should be located on an outside source. Like on top of a house, a tall building, or high tower… Now a’ days a satellite beams down the signal. But back then all we had for our TV was…. Rabbit Ears!

　

The Rabbit Ears were a V-shaped antenna made of two metal rods on a base. It was designed to sit on top of a television set. By manually adjusting the rods to the left, right, up, or down you would then receive the best possible signal. But there was just one problem, each time you changed the channel to see a different program, you usually had to manually adjust the rabbit ears all over again.
After Dad had finished adjusting the Rabbit Ears, he then made it a priority to fine tune the TV, by adjusting the control knobs either at the front, or if you were brave at the back of the TV. All this adjusting seemed to take forever! Soon we were all saying to Dad … It looks great, Don’t move it, That’s good, Stop, Its ok! …Then if that wouldn’t work, Mom would finally say!…“Fred stop” “Move so we can see the show.!” then Dad would turn around with this look… Like.. Oh …I didn’t know you guys were there? Good thing we only had 6 channels, or we may have never seen a television show.
During the week I watched shows like Howdy Dowdy, Caption Kangaroo and Friday night fights. Sunday morning I liked Orel Roberts, then there was Rin Tin Tin, Lassie, cartoons, and The Untouchables, and of course the Mickey Mouse Club, just to name a few.
As time passed we finally got an outside antenna.

I remember Dad fastening the new antenna to the chimney then lowering a flat wire and attaching it to the back of the TV. Then Dad climbing back onto the roof where he adjusted the antenna by moving it ever so slightly. Us kids were the go betweens… Dad would yell down to Rick. Then Rick would yell to me… “Does it look OK? “Then I would yell back to Rick “Yes or No” Then Rick would yell up to Dad “Yes or No!” Seems like this went on for some time . But we got the job done and …… No more Rabbit Ears!!
One day when Dad came home from work, he announced that we were having a new Zenith Color Television console delivered sometime late in the afternoon tomorrow.
The next day after school I stayed home for the delivery. Not only was the Television delivered but the TV man set it up too. It was very cool! I was the first to watch our new color TV! You’re probably wondering what happened to that old Black and White? Well it ended up in Rick’s and my bedroom, and of course with the old Rabbit Ears too.
Sunday nights was a big TV night around our house, the big show of the evening was called… The Wonderful World of Disney. “We just called it Disneyland”. It was a family oriented show. We always had popcorn or some type of desert with the show. One time my brother and I had just changed into our pajamas and were laying on the floor in front of the TV waiting for the show to start. Mom brought in a slice of berry pie for each of us.

Dad got up from his favorite chair and squatted down in front of the TV to change the channel, when he stood back up he took a step back, and stepped right onto my berry pie! The look on Dad’s face …was well… like… if you just stepped in …Dog Do !… look. Then Rick looked at me and I looked at Rick the next thing I new we were both laughing uncontrollably! Seeing Dad hobbling then hopping into the kitchen and trying not to get any pie on the carpet from his shoe, was just as funny!

Grandpa Tom