What a time in which we live!
There was a time that television was free—that is, other than the price of the set. Television sets were quite expensive when they first came on the scene, and originally only available in black and white, but at least you only had to pay one price for a set. That is, except for the monthly premiums which included interest.
With the acquisition of a television set, families in this area could access channels via UHF or VHF. Though televisions came with antennas to facilitate reception, an aerial antenna was usually necessary to get those channels, but, once again, after the antenna was purchased, there was no cost for access.
Sometimes, a television would receive well in one room or one section of a room in a house, but nowhere else in the structure. Sometimes, “rabbit ears” were used to improve reception, though, even then, reception was affected by storms and wind that blew the antenna. In desperation, sometimes wire coat hangers and aluminum foil were used to try to improve picture quality.
At the house I grew up in, we could get VHF Channels 2, 6 and 10 reasonably well, 6 better than 10. Channel 2 was the PBS channel out of Sneedville; 6 and 10 were the Knoxville NBC and ABC affiliates. At some point during my youth, those two Knoxville affiliates swapped networks. This was an aggravation, and my mother was quite disturbed as she had more trouble viewing the soap operas she’d enjoyed for years. We could also receive UHF Channel 26, but this required the use of an outside antenna and was very temperamental to tune, access often affected by weather and wind conditions.
In 1984, we moved to a different section of the county. There, we could only get one VHF channel, and Mother couldn’t see her beloved soaps at all. No more Days of Our Lives and Another World. We were down to one channel.
We couldn’t even enjoy the one channel we received. Only Dallas could make me fight that set every Friday night, and more often than not I was madder at the television’s lousy reception than I ever was at J. R. Ewing or Cliff Barnes.
I got to see cable television at my relatives’ homes in Knoxville on my occasional visits. What a miracle it seemed! Though there was a fee for cable services, it wasn’t prohibitive in its early years. Cable was not available everywhere. Even though I lived on Highway 33 just feet from the edge of the main highway connecting Union and Claiborne counties, cable was not available at my house.
Only when I bought my house on Walker Ford Road in 1991 did I live in a location with availability to cable. It was one of the first purchases I made after closing the loan. How joyous! For the small fee of $25 per month (yes, month, not day), I had access to the widest range of stations and programs ever! I in particular loved what was then known as The Family Channel. Oh, those wonderful Saturdays with Bonanza, my favorite western of all time. I hadn’t seen some of those episodes since I was in high school.
Ah, the joys of cable. No more distorted television pictures, and no antennas, interior or exterior!!! No longer did I have to fight the elements just to enjoy television.
Back then cable franchises were local, and it was easy to get assistance when needed. Now, like lots of other things, the local franchises have become conglomerates of national and international organizations. A few years ago I called for assistance with my cable package and learned in the course of conversation that, though I was speaking with a lady who spoke excellent, non-accented English, she was located on the other side of the world where the date had already changed. I was in one day speaking to a lady already living in the future!
Now my cable, internet and phone package costs me just pennies over $300 per month. It keeps rising yearly, and I try every year to see if my bill can be lowered below $300 per month without loss of services. I am now told that I am lucky to have the array of services that I have for the price I pay, and the only way remaining to lower the bill is to remove services.
What a world! But there was a time! Sadly, I fear our descendants will look back in a few decades to the prices and services we have today and say, “There was a time.”
If you want to have some fun, do a little research into what necessary items such as bread, milk, eggs, gasoline and other essentials cost today compared to ten years ago, twenty years ago, thirty years ago . . .
If people struggling through the Great Depression could have known that we would be paying $3.25 a dozen for eggs in 2025, and they were paying 17.2 cents per dozen on August 15, 1934 (Source: https://downloads.usda.library.cornell.edu/usda-esmis/files/05741r698/x… Retrieved July 22, 2025), they would have wondered how the country had survived in the face that the Great Depression only deepened, never ended.
What will a dozen eggs cost your grandchildren in 2050?

ANSWER TO QUESTION OF THE WEEK # 69
How much room do you need to grow a fungus? (ANSWER: As “mush” room as possible.)

QUESTION OF THE WEEK # 70
What did the plate say to the refrigerator? (See next week’s article in historicunioncounty.com for the answer.)

ABOUT GROWING OLDER, WILL ROGERS SAID:

I don't know how I got over the hill without getting to the top.

EMAIL WISDOM
Last night the internet stopped working so I spent a few hours with my family. They seem like good people.

Two satellite dishes got married. What was the best part of the event? Though the wedding wasn’t much, the reception was excellent.

TIMES ARE SO TOUGH THAT:
A truckload of Americans was caught sneaking into Mexico with empty egg baskets.

Due to turbulence in the stock market, Polygram Records, Warner Bros., and Zesta Crackers join forces and become: Poly, Warner Cracker.

LOGICALLY (?) THINKING: If there are more chickens than people in the world, shouldn’t there be several eggs laid daily per person? Why are egg prices so high if there is such availability? Go figure.