One Good Thing

A favorite returns, a legend departs

Dear Reader:

I love television. Always have, always will.

There — I said it.

[photo of actual dirt upon which I was planted, watered, and grew…]

I was raised with both bare feet in the dirt and with a head full of books and movies. And then, when I was around eight-years-old, we inherited a working television set from my grandparents.

We had the TV, but what we lacked was reception, so one of us kids had the job of going outside to grasp and twist the heavy metal aerial (antenna) that ran up the side of our house and into the night sky.

[Impeccable and historically accurate drawing by .. Amy]

Reception was patchy, and so, depending on the weather the antenna’s position would have to be adjusted. One night Syracuse’s station would come in, another night it might be Rochester’s.

Another family member would stand inside at the window, looking at the television and motioning to the person outside for when to twist and when to stop — at that moment when the picture finally came in.

[Are you picturing a small child wearing a flannel nightgown, boots and mittens, and turning the heavy metal pipe encasing the aerial in the midst of a blizzard, until her gum-chewing sister standing in the living room finally gives the ‘thumbs up’ through the window?

I am.

And are you wondering whether woolen mittens stick to a frozen metal pipe in the dead of winter?

I’m not.]

And then during my early teen years, my mother … MY MOM!! was responsible for getting cable into our part of the state, and although that is another great story for another time, I just want to put it out there that she was the best.

She loved TV, too.

[My mom — future cable pioneer]

My first career aspirations were to work in television, which I did (NBC News).

[Actual photo of Young Amy’s first day at NBC]

My non-career aspirations have tended toward finding and consuming great shows.