For over thirty years, my mother hasn’t been able to watch CBS. This means she’s missed the likes of “Murder She Wrote,” most of “Dallas,” and most recently “CSI.” The main reason for this void in her life is that the wood-console, big box, Zenith, 26-inch, that she got on layaway at Kmart, didn’t have a television antenna with a good enough signal to allow her to watch those shows without developing a headache from the poor picture quality. That and the cable company in her neighborhood won’t bring cable into her apartment complex without charging more than the television itself is worth.
In any event, the switchover from analog to digital transmission of television signals scared her. She wasn’t sure if that meant no more television and she didn’t want to spend the money to get a new one. No more television meant even more lonely afternoons. At least before, “la O-pe-rah” was on a channel she could watch.
Because my mom is daring when she’s with me, while out running errands this weekend, I convinced her to use her coupons for a digital converter box. She was hesitant, “pero si no trabaja, que hago” she asked. The fear of the future was overwhelming and it didn’t matter that I’d promised to buy her a new tv if the old one stopped working.
We hooked the converter up midday on Sunday. All told, it took about half an hour for all the signals to take hold.
The first thing my mother watched on CBS was Lorena Ochoa win this weekend’s LPGA golf tournament. The blue skies hanging over the golf course were bluer than anything my mom had ever seen on this television.
She marveled at the brightness of the colors, the greenness of the greens, the fluffiness of the clouds, and giggled nervously at the prospect of another decade with her big box console. “Parece nueva,” she laughed as she watched her first ever golf tournament. Although golf isn’t her game, and she’s never watched a tournament, it was the perfect thing to watch through a new tv.
The television wasn’t the only thing that looked and felt new.
“Te imaginas, treinta años sin el canal dos, me siento yo también como nueva.”
Hahaha. My mom is the same way with the dishwasher. She says, “Why do I need it if I have such capable hands here to help me?”
I know how your mom feels. I spent my whole life not watching Channel 2 because of poor reception. Even though I have HD TV now, I still don’t watch KCBS out of habit.
Chuckle. My mom does the “I’m better than the dishwasher”-thing too. Except when it comes to glasses. With those she admits defeat.
Very cool story. I think as we get older, we each get “set in our ways” and don’t like to change stuff that is comfortable to us, especially technological stuff. To this day, my mother in law refuses to use her automatic dishwasher. Her excuse is that it doesn’t wash the dishes as well as she does. Despite various efforts, no one has been able to make her use the dishwasher.