[DutchmenSport]

My dad was a television repair man. He had his own business of selling and repairing televisions in the late 1950-and all through the 1960's. I remember when black-and-white televisions were the hottest item. And then along came color. In our living room, my dad would often have half-a-dozen televisions running all at the same time, testing them after he got them fixed. His shop was too small to have them all running. Of course, as a kid, I was in hog heaven, being able to watch all 3 televisions stations at the same time! Yes ... only 3 over the air, and that was it!

I remember my dad getting the latest schematics for the latest models of televisions ever month. He had quite a library.... all paper ... long, long before the advent of electronic filing anything! I remember going into his shop and looking at the back of those televisions. When one was beyond repair (too expensive for the customer), my dad always let me have the fun of dismantling them. Of course, he kept the tubes as they could be used for another television and saved him some money, and I remember taking the picture tube out and going to the burn barrel and breaking the neck of the tube. After it was broken, then take a hammer and beat up the glass to small pieces. And eventually, all that glass and stuff was buried in a hole in behind the house.

I remember getting the magnets out from the picture tube yoke. I had quite a collection, and I remember I once screwed up the color on one of our own televisions when I played with my dads anti-magnetic "thing", that was used to unscramble the red-green-blue rays that made the picture color.

All of that went away eventually, when (I think it was) Motorola started using an all electronic component mother board instead of tubes. When something went wrong with the television, it didn't mater what, you just swapped out the board and it kept working. Unfortunately, my dad's lifestyle took a turn for the absolute worst in the early 1970's and he lost his business completely.

Still, those were the teaching tools that led me to not be afraid to tackle any kind of repair. My philosophy has always been, if someone else can do it, I can do it too and save some money.

Today, technology has changed so muck. And for all those young smart-aZZes out there who think they are God's gift to the world right now, just remind them, that in about 5 years, they too will be obsolete! Someone younger and sharper will replace them. After all, we live in a disposable world now, don't we?