My personal
summer savior.
You see, I grew up on a not entirely active farm in rural Iowa. The nearest neighbors were too far away (just under a mile away, but to a elementary school student without the ability to ride a bike, less than a mile might as well be just under infinity) to visit, and they did not have children anyway. Without the big yellow school bus to transport me to and from school, I was friendless. Yes, I had siblings, but I do not think I need to explain why that does not count.
In any case, one source of distraction during this awful, lonely season called 'summer', that others laud but I detest, was the boob tube. 5 channels for a while,
supplemented by fox later. How did I ever survive with
only 5 channels? Well, I didnt survive with 5 channels,
since, during the balance of the day, 3 channels played
these inspid tales called 'soap operas'. I could not, and to this day cannot, imagine anything more boring.
So i was left with 2 TV channels to distract me for the
majority of the day - PBS. (We received both Nebraska Educational TeleVision NETV and Iowa Public TeleVision IPTV.) Even the driest 1950's washed out instructional film, replayed on PBS, was more entertaining than what 'all my children' were doing that day.
I dont know how many hot afternoon hours were spent suckling on the goodness of PBS, But it could not have been enough. Like any normal kid, around 3:00 or so, i got my daily dose of Transformers, G.I. Joe, Thundercats, and that stuff. And like all good things, It eventually came to an end: About a week before school starts, IPTV starts running coverage of the Iowa State Fair. That stuff, while still better than any soap opera you care to name, bored me as well. But it was a bittersweet boring: the Fair signified the end of the torment that was summer. Within a week, I would be back in school, socializing with friends, and seething with jealousy at my peers' summer activities. But I still feel like a better person for all that boob tube vegging. Can you say that?