I remember the first time we had a television. It was back in the early 1960s and it was one of those huge console models that looked like a piece of furniture.

Our family didn’t have much money back then, but that TV didn’t cost us anything.  Apparently, it belonged to the local fire department and one day the thing started smoking. They just turned it off and put it aside.

My father, who was a refrigeration mechanic and pretty good a fixing gadgets, saw it at the fire station while he was repairing their Pepsi vending machine. He picked up the TV and brought it home.

Over the next few days the living room floor was covered with wires, small metal parts, vacuum tubes and lots of tools. But he got it working, and we finally got to watch TV (black & white) in our own home.

There were just three or four channels back then, but I still remember sitting on the floor with my brother and sister eating cereal and watching shows like Captain Kangaroo, Fun At One and The Flintstones.

Years later, we got our first color television. Again, it was a big console unit, and again, it didn’t cost us anything. The TV had been sitting on the covered porch at my father’s uncle’s house. His Uncle Jack said it stopped working years ago and no one knew what was wrong with it. My father said he could try to repair it for him, but Uncle Jack had a new TV and just said, “take it away, it’s just taking up space”.

I helped my father carry it to the station wagon to bring home. After opening up the back he said it wasn’t a major project - probably just a blown fuse. Once he could get it powered up, he said there was something wrong with the potentiator (he called it a pot) that controlled the color. The copper yoke behind the TV monitor that focused the color and picture was also off a bit. But a few days later, we were watching color TV at home for the first time.

Over the years, we’ve had other TVs of all shapes and sizes. (We bought those.) And in more recent times, those TVs have come with remotes.

After getting used to pointing the remote and simply pushing a button, I don’t know how we were ever able to watch TV years ago. Imagine having to get up from the chair and manually change channels, volume, brightness and contrast - and adjust the antenna.   

Now we even have big 84-inch screens, pre-programming, Internet capability and voice activation. Today’s TVs make everything so much simpler for the viewer.

But I’m pretty sure my father wouldn’t have a clue how to fix one.