When did you first get a TV and what shows did you watch?

Television first came to Australia with the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne. Before people had their own sets, you’d see crowds gathered outside shops watching through the windows. The shops like Myers and the milk bars in town would have TVs in their display windows with speakers out front so people could hear. Only the odd person up our street had one - we used to reckon they were the rich folks!

We got our first TV in 1959 - though knowing Jack now, I’m not sure he paid full price for it! They were big furniture things back then, nice looking cabinets and everything. It’s amazing how they’ve got smaller and smaller over the years. When we first got it, I was actually in the hospital having Margaret, and I was really cheesed off because I had to go to hospital and miss out on watching it!

My daughter Diane was quite clever about it. She used to invite herself into people’s homes after school to watch their TVs. I’d be wondering where she was, and she’d be at the neighbours’ place watching TV. She’d wangle her way in saying “We haven’t got any TV at our place” and they’d say “Oh well, if you want to come in after school, you can come and watch it here.” I’d have to go and fetch her home for dinner.

Before we had our own TV, we were friends the neighbours next door, and we could go in on a Saturday night and watch The Mickey Mouse Show. But then they started putting football on and that turned me right off - bloody sport had to get in there! When TV first started, we only had channels 2, 7, and 9 - I’m not sure if that’s the correct sequence, but they followed on one after another.

Back in those days, TVs had valves in them. Some men were terrible about it - my friend Shirley’s husband would go to work and take one of the main valves out of the TV set so she couldn’t watch TV during the day. Jack wasn’t quite that clever, but he would come in and feel the TV, and if it was warm, I got in trouble.

The first movie I ever saw in color was Louisiana Purchase, and I was wrapped! Before that, there were sepia ones, which were brownish, then black and whites. The sepia ones were silent movies too - no talking. Then we had black and white talkies, and finally color came in. I remember when the kids would go down to the milk bar to get some bread for dinner, they’d take forever to get back because they were watching the Mickey Mouse Show in the shop window. I’d have to go out and say “Get yourself home, your mother’s waiting on some bread and butter for his dinner!”

These days, there’s nothing much on TV that I like - it’s all killing, fighting and nasty stuff. I don’t know what I’d do without my recording machine, Samuel. I can make up my own programs and watch what I like. It’s amazing really, when you think about it - from having to peer through shop windows to being able to record whatever you want to watch!