Day 1: Wake Up Call About Living in the 50's!!

 Wake up Call About Living in the 50's

(Entertainment, Communication & Making Coffee) 

      Day One: So, I wake up in 1950's…right smack in the middle of the 50’s and it dawns on me…all those thoughts about the fun TV entertainment I had planned. All those DVD’s I was thinking about watching with Cary Grant, Bob Hope and others…I Love Lucy…STREAMING SOAP OPERAS???!!!! What was I thinking??? That is NOT the 1950’s. The 1950’s TV served up 2 things… Take it or Leave it! Okay, so thankfully I actually had that epiphany Last night when I could still Google the heck out of things. I found 4 TV Stations (on Comcast..but I will only turn to those exact channels, not skim through anything else)  that run the old timey stuff. I printed off their schedules aka The TV Guide. It is amazing how much is 60's that I loved and not 50's. But also eye opening that the days of planning were all flawed by my 2017 Brain and culture. Today...we just decide what we feel like watching and stick it in a player or find where it is streaming and pay and watch. Nothing is withheld from us! I remember waiting all year to watch the one showing of The Wizard of Oz and didn'teven know for years that Oz was in Color being we watched everything on our Black and White TV set. It was anticipated... It was an event...it was worthy of Jiffy Pop. Kids don't have any events like this anymore...how sad for them.

 I decided I will allow myself to watch one 50's movie a day or an hour or two interspersed through out the day of streaming 50's TV...IF I find that I want to watch something at a time when NOTHING is on these channels in the 50's. There are so many hours that there isn't anything from that period on ANY of the channels. I figured that wasn't true to life back then either, there was always something.

Getting Ready:

So, I have Handkerchiefs, Magazines, my printed TV Guides (highlighted are the only 50's shows and this guide starts at 5 Am...so not much available)

 So Picture this..(Remember we are in my living room about 70 years ago) I want to watch some TV so I GET UP...walk across the room, pulled out a knob and stand there and wait, The TV came on...picture is a tad slower than I am used to because the tubes are heating up. There are two knobs no longer in use that I have to adjust...Horizontal and Vertical Hold...Hold as in stop these dang lines.

The show that is on is What's My Line Game Show...nope. I turn a large Knob that clicks on another channel...News...nope. 2 more channels left...and then it is either clicked off as if there is NOTHING on TV or you settle for something that is on.  I settled  for The Lone Ranger as I start to make my coffee. One thing I discovered was that Tonto...the Lone Ranger's Faithful Companion, was Actually an American Indian...the other thing I discovered is that all the bad guys in shows are scheming a way to get rid of the hero and that this is a very boring show! I can look at the TV guide to find something I would like to see and  what time it is on and then if I miss it...it is gone. No recording for future watching and the commercials can't be skipped. Your 30 minute show is really a 20 minute show with 10 minutes of sponsor selling their stuff. I truly live in an incredible time.


At one Point the station shut down...It is  not on 24/7. I don't know what the 50's looked like signing off. Probably just saying "this concludes our programming for today" and then a test pattern with a humming noise that was so annoying...And Loud, that you turned off the TV.

Coffee

Ummm....I immediately hit a snag. I usually grind my beans and use my Ninja. Which is exactly what I did but then I sat and wondered what would they have done back in the 50's I know I have a stove top percolator in my Camping Stuff and I have an antique coffee mill, but that is so 19th Century. I can't remember beans EVER when I was a kid. My Dad drank instant Sanka before going to work and my mom was a tea drinker. I know that what was bought was actually ground already. So...I will be getting some Good Old Fashioned Maxwell House today and use the Perk tomorrow as I KNOW Starbuck's was not around yet.

What Time is it?

I keep looking at my phone which is such a temptation to click an app...like Facebook or Twitter and then realized...this is not how i would be telling time in the 50's also! So after much searching around for where I might have put the dang thing... I find it!!! An old Wind up Timex watch...you know the ones...."It takes a licking and it keeps on Ticking" Set the time but not the date...maybe tomorrow... as the only way to set the date is to spin the hours away 24 at a time to set the date and it is on the 6th...so that is a lot of spinning. I wound it up and tick tick tick the time is going by. This may all take awhile to get settled as I walk in my daily routine and realize I am doing things 21st Century. I thank God I have always bought old, Time Gone by Things when I would find them as they are coming in handy now.

Communication

Okay, this is a big one! I woke up this morning and did not go on Facebook, or Twitter, or my Email and I at once, felt alone. Isn't that the weirdest reaction... I never expected? I realized that I was totally addicted to information...to know what was going on and what everyone thought about what was going on and giving my "very important" 2 cents of what I thought of what was going on and maybe trying to convince someone that the way that they thought things were, wasn't actually a true picture of what was going on and wanting to see how many people would "Like" or comment on my opinion. Likes are very important. It validates what you are thinking...or doing...and the more likes you get the more you are sure that you count. So, what the heck has happened to us that we are so addicted to what people think...all. the. time.? I mean really. I wasn't even going to post this blog experiment on my regular Facebook Feed because of all my Friends thinking I am crazy...especially those who are still in the Business I just retired from thinking I was nuts..."Oh Poor Gayle, she closed her business and now has gone off the deep end" And if they are Southern they will add..."Bless her heart". So, I believe that this is going to be the challenge for me. I know my family thinks I am a bit crazy with this...and it is inconvenient to them that they have to call me on the phone only, no texts, no emails, but I really, really want to do this for some reason. So, oh well if it doesn't line up with complete sanity, neither does counting "likes" on a post.  Another thing with communication...That phone above is mine. I no longer have a land line but have changed my ring tone to the Old School Phone. I am trying to keep my phone next to this phone so I remember that I can't walk all over the place with it. That we couldn't take our phones out side, or put it on speaker so we could keep doing what we were just doing while chatting.  A few other things about communication. If you were on the phone, another person trying to call you would get a busy signal...AND you wouldn't have a "missed call" you wouldn't even know that they had called and of course, no call waiting. They would have to try again...and again..and again. If you left the house, you had no more communication  by phone...AND you dialed a number every single time instead of speaking into the phone "Call David" or touch his name with your fingertip and he would automatically be called. So, my rules for this. I will acknowledge missed calls by family and friends because they will not be thinking to call me back...it is me in the 1950's not them. But don't text me! I will bring my phone with me to the store or whatever, in case of an emergency, like if my 1994 Jeep breaks down, but it will be off the entire time I am not at home otherwise. I will "dial" my numbers instead of using the favorites or Siri. I realize that I don't know any one's telephone number anymore. I still remember childhood friends numbers but do not know my husband's by heart. WOW! And that telephone book that showed up on my front porch that I tossed in the garbage right away...ummm...that might have come in handy.

       Well...off to do housework, ironing and I am sure running into a number of things I didn't think about...Until Tomorrow!