The Old and Faithful Sharp TV

Twenty years ago this February, I was living in Worcester, MA while I attended college at Clark University. I lived on Hollywood Street, in the "Main South" portion of Worcester, which is not the most desirable place to live. One day, very near my 20th birthday, I returned to my apartment building after a day on campus, climbed to the third floor, and found a large cardboard box sitting outside my apartment door. A new Sharp TV from my mother! Oh, the delight! At the time I had a black and white TV, which was probably 20 years old if it was a day old, which operated with the help of a failing antenna and  tinfoil.

The Sharp TV has been with me/us every since. It has lived in Massachusetts and Maine; in Worcester, Old Orchard Beach, two homes in Saco, and Amesbury. It has been faithful, never failing us even once. I have the original remote control, which with some excessive pressure, still works.

We finally decided to give into the pressure and get a flat screen TV. Can you believe that we actually bought a flat screen TV in December 2010 and returned it unopened, 4 weeks later? Maybe we are a little resistant to change, but we have the new TV, unpacked, and up and running. The faithful, old Sharp is upstairs in the spare bedroom, unplugged, and without any source for reception. Even though we watch little TV and have rarely ever had a use for more than one TV, I sort of hope that she stays with us. I suspect that the new TV is not designed to last 20 years. I suspect that we are already out of date with "latest" technology and it's been in house less than a week.

Here are some pictures of old faithful.

The lovely old Sharp.

Doesn't she look great, all big and boxy?

The original remote control.

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