Television has changed a lot in my lifetime. In 1951 it was all black and white, adjusting the horizontal hold, vertical hold, and brightness by hand. The remote control was anyone you could cajole into changing the channel or adjusting the set. The signal was over the air and for an optimum picture anywhere over a few miles from the transmitter required a large antenna with a rotor to move the antenna for the best picture. TV sets were different back then and I remember one portable set our family had that on humid days would hiss for five minutes after being turned on as the moisture dried. I waited for it to throw sparks like one of Dr. Frankenstein’s lab instruments, but it never did.

Fast forward to 1962 and cable came to my hometown in eastern New York. We were located in a TV fringe area, meaning that a combination of geography and distance from station transmitters made it difficult to get a good picture. The offerings on the system were nothing like those available today but we now had seven local channels, WOR in New York and a early precursor of the Weather Channel; a board that turned in front of a camera on which were mounted gauges showing temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction and several other items.

Now we jump ahead to 1970. Freshly home from Vietnam, married with a daughter and a son on the way I was assigned as an instructor at the Field Artillery School at Fort Sill, Okla. From the standpoint of television my wife and I bought our first color television which would be part of the family for the next eight years. We also did our first cable hookup which mainly offered Oklahoma City, Wichita Falls and Dallas stations. One thing those stations did well, even 50 years ago, was severe weather forecasting because out on the plains even without a tornedo those super cells could be very scary looking.

During the ’70s we were back in civilian life still with our daughter and now two sons. Living in Amherst and then Clarence we made the obvious choice and had cable in both locations which in the 1970 consisted of local and Canadian channels and a few premium channels like HBO. The picture was good, and it wasn’t expensive. Our color set was showing its age and sometimes required the care of what is now a vanishing breed, the TV repairman.

When we moved to Silver Creek in 1980 the cable had not yet arrived, but we were assured that it wouldn’t be long in arriving. Therefore, I saw no need to install a rooftop aerial which was a big mistake. Let’s just say that picture quality with rabbit ears depended on weather conditions, time of day, where viewers were sitting and who was watching.

Finally in 1986 the cable came to Silver Creek just in time for our kids to begin heading off to college. Residents watched in anticipation as the cable crept through the village. Cable had changed a lot since we last had it in 1980. It was certainly more expensive but much more was offered like CNN and the Weather Channel and upgraded premium services.

We stayed with cable until early in the current century by which time our three children were all married, and we were the grandparents of seven grandchildren. Now the steadily rising cost of cable sent us in search of something cheaper. We found a satellite service which at the time was cheaper than a comparable cable service.

The satellite picture is very good but sometimes during heavy rain storms the signal will go out for minutes at a time. What was really annoying though was that during heavy wet snow storms the satellite dish would become covered with snow and the signal would be lost until the snow melted.

Not being good on ladders, I did discover a method to clear the dish. Every year when I store garden hoses for the winter, I put one in the basement by the laundry sink. Then when the dish gets covered in snow, I hook the hose to the hot water tap and put it through a window and then hose the dish until the snow melts. Now I am happy to report that the satellite people have developed an improvement so that when the dish goes out the signal begins streaming.

Streaming is the future of television. The picture quality is excellent and because it doesn’t require the infrastructure of cable or satellite its cost is substantially less than the others. We stream a lot now and may eventually cut the cord.

So, that is my life so far seen through the eye of television. No, I don’t mean the CBS eye, but my own eye.

Thomas Kirkpatrick Sr. is a Silver Creek resident. Send comments to editorial@observertoday.com