Remember when...

One night when I got home from work, I took a "power nap" for a couple of hours. Bored and restless when I woke up at 2am, I decided to watch some tv. It was just like it was prime time. Not just infomercials, but real programming...albeit repeats of what came on during prime time.

Remember when tv went off? I mean "this concludes another broadcast day for _____ TV...." then they would play the Star Spangeld Banner, showing jets flying and or historical/patriotic stuff. Then they would show the color bars for a few minutes, then static. Yeah, static. Until like 5 or 6am when tv came back on again. I was never up that early so I don't remember if there was a similar introduction.

So now kids, well teens that have pretty much always had cable, they have never seen that. And pre-teens now by the time they are in high school, VCRs will probably only be used in public schools...like those old school reel to reels I used to watch. Remember those filmstrips that had the actual countdown in the beginning, and when it was over if you didn't turn it off, the film would fling on the roll. Okay, maybe my memory is too vivid, but you old heads know what i'm talkin about.

Other stuff I remember from when I was growing up. Did anybody else have a "Creature Feature?" You know that monster lookin dude that was like a host for the scary flick of the week, a la Elvira-esque. I spent my preteen years in Maryland, so the cartoon channel was Channel 20, WDCA. The host was actually the same guy that was the clown or whatever for the cartoons that ran in the afternoon, I think his name was Captain 20. So by day he was kinda like Mr. Greenjeans from Captain Kangaroo (again telling my age), but at night he was a vampire. In writing this blog I actually found a tribute website (www.captain20.com/index.htm) That was before the "cryptkeeper" from HBO was in his heyday.

Funny how things change. I wonder if things will change so radically in my lifetime as they have in the time of say, may grandparents. In their lifetime, they have been from no tv, to black and white to color, and cable to webcasting. So I guess my kids will laugh at me when the 2037 equivalent of an ATM machine is commonplace and I can' figure it out...darn kids.