The Way Things Were

Sheffield, England (Circa 1964-1966): When I was a young lad, I don't think I was aware that such a beast as a color television existed (I know, I know, it's spelt "colour" in England)...

In those far-off times when I was around 7 to 9 years old, anyone I knew who owned a television had only a black-and-white set, and I don't think I'd even heard of the idea of a color TV.

On Saturdays my parents used to take me into the Sheffield town center, but we didn’t have a lot of spare money in those days, so we would simply amble around looking in shop windows and generally have a good time just being together.

During one such outing as we meandered our way through the town, we passed a large department store. In one display window were row upon row of black-and-white televisions of all sorts of different shapes and sizes. And there – in solitary splendor in the middle of the display – was a single color television.

We were all transfixed. I stood there with my hands and face pressed against the window. I can even remember the program that was showing, which was some sort of documentary about a steel foundry. At one stage a big crucible full of liquid metal was tipped over to pour its contents into a network of channels that fed into molds.

The same program was showing on all of the televisions, which made the color screen stand out all-the-more. Seeing the white-hot metal pouring out of the crucible – turning to yellows and oranges and reds as it raced down the channels and cooled – was simply amazing! Almost half a century later as I pen these words, this memory remains as fresh in my mind as if it were yesterday.