A question for old people

[Rochard]

This past week we bought a new TV, desk, and a few chairs for the breakfast bar... and I had to get rid of the cardboard. And this made me wonder....

In the 1950s and 1960s how did people buy TVs? TVs are huge back then and most people didn't have pick up trucks and SUVs... Did they go to a showroom and pick a TV, and it was delivered to them the next day?

[CurrentlySober]

Pretty much. They still came in big cardboard boxes though.

One of my earliest memories was playing with the box when I was tiny. Wasn't interested in the TV (Too Young) but the box was great

[L-Pink]

Probably the same delivery choices I had last week when I bought a new couch.

[Rochard]

I guess it's just... I've never seen on TV how they used to sell TVs in the 1950s and 1960s.

I do remember our first microwave - Before you could buy them in stores, you could only buy them at "microwave shows" usually held in a convention hall at a hotel. I remember my folks standing around looking our first microwave saying "Modern technology - it can cook things without heat...."

The VCR blew their mind too.

[Rochard]

This is neat....

[Maqua]

Buying the TV was only the first part, Sears use to deliver them right to the door if you were lucky, heavy as can be and I think they may have even unpacked the sucker



After you got your new TV then you had to buy a antenna and build a tower to hold it in order to get any reception at all, 3 channels max if it was a cloudy day,



Lets not forget about the antenna controller otherwise you would have been turning the antenna by hand or one of the kids would be doing that while someone is yelling from the living room hehe



You also needed a whole whack of cable and some ingenuity to get it from the TV to the antenna and you needed more to set up the controller in order to move the antenna,

Back then you always had to remember to unplug the sucker during lightning storms,

That was why family's at that time were always big, they needed a few kids at home to change the channels for Dad or move the antenna controller,

Which explains why the kids were outside at the crack of dawn and all day rain /snow or shine until the sun goes down at night hehe

[Barry-xlovecam]

TV's were sold in appliance shoppes and department stores like Sears, Montgomery Wards (remember them), others ... there was no Walmart or ____ <== big box retailer here.

My uncle ( now dead for 20 years) owned a small chain of furniture stores in the 1960's the stores also sold large appliances TVs, Refrigerators, Washer and Dryers. The store had delivery trucks ( price included "free delivery" ) and the delivery men. If you paid the extra $5, the delivery men boxed and "set up" the TV -- put it in it's desired place and plugged it in, warmed it up ( TV's had vacuum tubes back then ), then left you with a working TV.

Rabbit rears were good enough where we lived. Maybe, we could not afford an antenna and a rotator? The picture would get bad occasionally and we would put flags of aluminium foil on the antenna's rabbit ears :P

That was black and white TV back then. One neighbor bought a color TV in the mid 60s, they were like $700 back then ($3,500 in today's value -- a month's pay for a joe-worker). He had an antenna with a rotator for the color TV, a console model.

[aipmedia]

where is the time ...

[Look Chang]

My Dad bought its first TV set for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.

It was also the first Eurovision live transmission in B&W between UK and France.

[SongRider]

My Mom and Dad always had stuff delivered... Tv's, Appliances, Furniture...ect... Back then delivery was most times free and part of the deal as a given... Leaving the boxes for the kids was an option... Almost ALL the time my Dad told them to take the box (es) because he didnt want to fuck with them after I got bored playing with them...

Ahhh Memories... Thats back when Mom stayed at home and Dads pay covered everything!

[Vendzilla]

Wait, you think most people didn't have pick up's in the 50's and 60's? LOL

Also, TV's are a lot bigger now than back then, I have a 50" that I brought home in my pick up!
Trunks in cars were a lot bigger back then and people had station wagons instead of SUV's. Being old has nothing to do with it, it's knowing about the history of cars!

[Mutt]

LOL TV sets were still huge in your day Rochard. I remember buying a 31" SONY GAO TV in the early 90's, it was a monster - you either put it in the backseat of your car if it would fit or in the trunk and tied down the open trunk lid.

There were small TV/Radio shops still around in the 80's, they'd sell and service TV's, they'd come to the house. The big electronics stores and solid state TV's put them out of business. I remember when I was a little kid the TV and appliances breaking down quite a bit and regularly having service guys in the house.

[Elli]

Hah! We were moving houses and put our 32" Sony Vega/Wega Trinitron awesome brick of TV into the front passenger seat of a '91 Civic. It cracked the windshield and dented the foam of the chair, but by god, we got it to the new house!

The worst part about helping friends move in the 90s was moving the TV! One friend had a huge projector thingy that was 4' wide!

[BlackCrayon]

Originally Posted by Maqua

Buying the TV was only the first part, Sears use to deliver them right to the door if you were lucky, heavy as can be and I think they may have even unpacked the sucker



After you got your new TV then you had to buy a antenna and build a tower to hold it in order to get any reception at all, 3 channels max if it was a cloudy day,



Lets not forget about the antenna controller otherwise you would have been turning the antenna by hand or one of the kids would be doing that while someone is yelling from the living room hehe



You also needed a whole whack of cable and some ingenuity to get it from the TV to the antenna and you needed more to set up the controller in order to move the antenna,

Back then you always had to remember to unplug the sucker during lightning storms,

That was why family's at that time were always big, they needed a few kids at home to change the channels for Dad or move the antenna controller,

Which explains why the kids were outside at the crack of dawn and all day rain /snow or shine until the sun goes down at night hehe

my parents still use the antenna set up and get 25-30 channels now in digital for free.

[SongRider]

I thought we were referring to "old" folks like me... When TV sets looked like...





This... the 60's and 70's... When a 25 inch color tv was the absolute shit!!!

[ctggls]

Originally Posted by Maqua

Buying the TV was only the first part, Sears use to deliver them right to the door if you were lucky, heavy as can be and I think they may have even unpacked the sucker



After you got your new TV then you had to buy a antenna and build a tower to hold it in order to get any reception at all, 3 channels max if it was a cloudy day,



Lets not forget about the antenna controller otherwise you would have been turning the antenna by hand or one of the kids would be doing that while someone is yelling from the living room hehe



You also needed a whole whack of cable and some ingenuity to get it from the TV to the antenna and you needed more to set up the controller in order to move the antenna,

Back then you always had to remember to unplug the sucker during lightning storms,

That was why family's at that time were always big, they needed a few kids at home to change the channels for Dad or move the antenna controller,

Which explains why the kids were outside at the crack of dawn and all day rain /snow or shine until the sun goes down at night hehe

Hehe I remember doing the antenna thing with my dad. Back then you would have to gather a few friends a give them a bear so they could help you out carry the monster....

[Rochard]

Originally Posted by Maqua

Buying the TV was only the first part, Sears use to deliver them right to the door if you were lucky, heavy as can be and I think they may have even unpacked the sucker



After you got your new TV then you had to buy a antenna and build a tower to hold it in order to get any reception at all, 3 channels max if it was a cloudy day,



Lets not forget about the antenna controller otherwise you would have been turning the antenna by hand or one of the kids would be doing that while someone is yelling from the living room hehe



You also needed a whole whack of cable and some ingenuity to get it from the TV to the antenna and you needed more to set up the controller in order to move the antenna,

Back then you always had to remember to unplug the sucker during lightning storms,

That was why family's at that time were always big, they needed a few kids at home to change the channels for Dad or move the antenna controller,

Which explains why the kids were outside at the crack of dawn and all day rain /snow or shine until the sun goes down at night hehe

We lived out in the country in the 1970s and 1980s and we had an attenna we had to turn using a machine like that. We had four channels - abc, cbs, nbc, and PBS. If the attenna was frozen.... You were shit out of luck.

[SBJ]

Originally Posted by SongRider

I thought we were referring to "old" folks like me... When TV sets looked like...





This... the 60's and 70's... When a 25 inch color tv was the absolute shit!!!

that is about the style of tv I grew up with in the 70's (26" RCA).. in the 90's I bought a 32" tv from wally world and asked a friend to meet me after work to move it up to my 2nd story apartment. My friend never showed up and I had to carry this BIG and HEAVY tv by myself. I ended up taking it out of the box at the foot of the stairs and got it upstairs

And back on topic yup back in even the early 70's people would buy tvs and have them delivered.. Haha I remember as a kid we bought our first 4 head VCR and our local RCA dealership delivered it and showed us how it worked in our home.. LOL try going into best buy and asking them to deliver and set up your dvd player.

[the Shemp]

they were delivered just like furniture is delivered today. some of those old tv units even had "hi-fi"... turntable, receiver and speakers in the wood cabinet...

[nico-t]

can you describe and post pics of the truck you picked it up with?

[Choopa Phil]

Ill never forget when working as a stock boy back in the early 2000's at "The Wiz". Having to load those big ass tube TV's in cars of all shapes and sizes. the best was a 32" flat screen tube in a miata with the top down. Was that you currentlysober?

[carpocratian]

Here in Texas pickups were very common, even back then.

The interiors and trunks of cars were huge, too. You could put a TV in the trunk and tie the hood down, if necessary.

[Tam]

Originally Posted by Rochard

I guess it's just... I've never seen on TV how they used to sell TVs in the 1950s and 1960s.

I do remember our first microwave - Before you could buy them in stores, you could only buy them at "microwave shows" usually held in a convention hall at a hotel. I remember my folks standing around looking our first microwave saying "Modern technology - it can cook things without heat...."

The VCR blew their mind too.

The first VCR my husband and I bought, and this was just mid 80s so not THAT damn long ago, but it cost us like $450 and barely and an on and off button and when it was running, it sounded like a jet airliner landing in my living room.

Microwave - that thing was insanely expensive, I think we paid like $600 or so for that!!

The first TV we had was a console TV and we had to have it delivered, there was no such thing as a flat screen or anything.

Mind you, I am 50 years old and this was just in mid 80s, so god knows what it was like in the 50s and 60s. lol

[Thumbler]

When I was a kid, people would rent TVs - black and white ones - not buy them. Which I must admit seems ridiculous now.

[SilentKnight]

Originally Posted by Vendzilla

Wait, you think most people didn't have pick up's in the 50's and 60's? LOL

Also, TV's are a lot bigger now than back then, I have a 50" that I brought home in my pick up!
Trunks in cars were a lot bigger back then and people had station wagons instead of SUV's. Being old has nothing to do with it, it's knowing about the history of cars!

I remember my uncle having a Buick Roadmaster stationwagon that could fit a full 4x8' sheet of plywood in the back (with the tailgate door closed).

Originally Posted by Mutt

LOL TV sets were still huge in your day Rochard. I remember buying a 31" SONY GAO TV in the early 90's, it was a monster - you either put it in the backseat of your car if it would fit or in the trunk and tied down the open trunk lid.

Even with a pickup truck, you run the risk of damaging a big TV - always better to have the store deliver and install it.

We bought a 52" Sony projo about 14 years ago - it was a monster at the time...paid over $3k for it I recall. The store waived the delivery and setup fee since we bought a complete audio system, racking and a ton of furniture the same day.

I owned a pickup truck at the time - but no way was I gonna handle that sucker myself.

[Vendzilla]

Originally Posted by SilentKnight

I remember my uncle having a Buick Roadmaster stationwagon that could fit a full 4x8' sheet of plywood in the back (with the tailgate door closed).

We had a Chrysler wagon with a 440 in it. Hauled ass and If I remember right, had a back seat , which was pretty cool

[John-ACWM]

Originally Posted by CurrentlySober

Pretty much. They still came in big cardboard boxes though.

One of my earliest memories was playing with the box when I was tiny. Wasn't interested in the TV (Too Young) but the box was great

fun to reminisce.