Do You Remember Black and White TVs?

Are you old enough to remember the good? old days when the family had only one TV in the home and it was in black and white? I do. I also remember sporting events on TV and what would occur at our house to my dismay. But first, let me explain this photo. This is an old photo of my now deceased brother, Harold (Hal) Lawrence Gariety. Harold loved sports and he loved playing baseball in high school and in the U.S. Army. And while serving in the army Harold was stationed in Sendai, Japan where he played on an army team called the Black Knights. This is a photo of my brother in the Black Knights uniform in Japan. Harold was one of the team pitchers. This was probably the spring of 1955.





Now when I was growing up I didn't like any sport, especially baseball, because my three older brothers would insist that our family watch any sporting event on our black and white TV instead of any reguler show like a comedy, western or variety show. So I didn't enjoy watching the Cincinatti Reds or the Cleveland Indians play. Totally boring in my opinion. And when my brothers, especially Harold, took over the TV I would stalk off to my room to read a book. Maybe that is how I fell in love with books and reading. It was my refuge from my brothers and sports on TV.


Now in the spring when we would gather wild strawberries and had to de-stem them we would enlist the aid of Harold. He wasn't crazy about this task but my mom prevailed and Harold helped my sister and I do this task. Well, just to pester my older sister, Mary Ellen, and myself he would place the de-stemed strawberry bowl half way across the room and give each strawberry a pitch into the bowl. Some were curve balls and some were sliders or knuckle balls but all looked like fast pitches to me. I always felt sorry for those poor little strawberries being slammed into the bowl with a fast pitch. But in spite of their smashed appearance those tiny wild strawberries were the sweetest things to taste. Much much better than the big luscious looking strawberries you find in the grocery stores today that look good but have a bland cardboard box taste.