Blog 3833 – 05.21.2026

Confessions of a Life-Long TV Addict

Before I can even remember I was a TV addict. Even as a young boy before they had TV signal available in my hometown of Chattanooga, my parents told stories of how much I loved watching Lunch With Soupy Sales, a local TV show that aired in Detroit, Michigan beginning in 1953. My parents, my baby brother, and I lived there in the early 1950’s for a couple of years. It was there we bought our first TV. It was a square black and white TV that became my window on the world.

We brought that TV back to Chattanooga we we moved back but could not watch it for several months as the first TV signal was broadcast on WDEF (Channel 12) on April 15, 1954. Two of the most tragic times in my young life were when the TV had to be taken to the shop for repair. Those days without TV I was like a lost zoombie.

The only time in my life other than those terrible TV repair days that I recall being without TV for more than a day was during Basic Training in the Army. Basic lasted eight weeks and they kept us pretty busy from lights on at 5am till lights off at 8pm. Fortunately for me for the first time ever my training battalion was given a two week leave right in the middle of Basic and so I got to spend Christmas at home with family and friends and had unlimited access to my parents TV. Back then the stations still signed off at midnight.

After Basic I had Signal School training at Fort Gordon, Georgia and in the evenings after school we had access to the Day Room and a big color TV. I recall watching the Smothers Brothers, the Glenn Campbell Good Time Hour, and the Andy Williams Show in that Day Room with a bunch of green clad brothers.

My next duty assignment was at Tan Son Nhut Airbase just outside Saigon, South Vietnam. We had a TV in the Day Room there too. The shows were mostly old black and white re-runs and movies, but I watched them. I recall that they did play Star Trek reruns often.

My last duty assignment was Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Because I was an E-5 I was allowed to live off post and the first thing I bought for my little garage apartment was a small black and white TV.

I have owned a lot of TV’s in my seventy-five years on this earth. As I write this I am waiting on the AT&T repair to come fix our WiFi. We have not had a TV signal for a couple of days. But don’t feel too sorry for me. I have a library of favorite movies and the Blue Ray player has been my window on the world in the interim.

Much as I love reading, traveling and seeing new places and meeting new people the TV has  entertained and educated me throughout this adventure in time and space.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David James White

P.S. WiFi is back up and the streaming is wonderful to behold.