Thursday, December 3, 2009
12:46 AM
Toddler T.V.
Very, very few kids, or even parents, for that matter, had televisions in their rooms. Most homes had one television and it was normally located in the main living room. This little Fisher Price toy t.v. really wasn't a t.v. at all. It just looped the same pictures and nursery rhyme songs over and over but because we didn't know anything more high tech than that at the time, we kids thought it a very big deal to have one of these to watch at playtime and at bedtime. My friend, Jeff and I used to take his into his playhouse where we would pretend it was a real t.v. for hours on end. For baby boomers, this was a must-have toy and almost every one of us did have one when we were toddlers and preschoolers.
Random Related Story: One afternoon while playing with one of these in Jeff's playhouse, sirens started going off. I don't know if there was some sort of accident or if they were doing some test runs or what, but the police/ambulance/fire sirens blew for a long time that day. Jeff and I were both terrified of sirens. Any time we would hear one, we would run to our respective homes to find our moms so the sirens couldn't get us. lol
Jeff's playhouse sat at the very back of his very large backyard which meant that running to our moms was going to be a very long haul. We both started crying hysterically and screaming for our moms. We were afraid to try to make a run for it because the sirens sounded very close and as I said, it was a long trek up to his house and then, even farther across the street and down two houses to mine. All of a sudden, Jeff bolted out of the playhouse and took off running for his house leaving me in there begging him not to leave me alone. He ran straight into his house and apparently made no mention of the fact that I was still out there screaming my head off. His mom calmed him down and then put him down for a nap, leaving me there all alone for a good hour with sirens STILL going. Finally, the sirens started to die down so after a very long hour or so of screaming and crying for help, I decided to make a run for it. I gathered every ounce of courage I had and ran as fast as I could to Jeff's back door. I was still afraid to go to the front of his house or try to cross the street to get home so I knocked on his door and asked his mom to PLEASE call my mama and tell her to come to their backyard and get me. LOL It's funny now but at that moment, I was terrified. I remember Jeff's mom looking as though she felt part sad for my terror, learning that I had been out there that whole time, and then also, part tickled to see that something so benign as sirens had caused me so much panic. Normally, Jeff's friends were never allowed to go into his house while he was napping but she made an exception that day and let me go and wait in their front door entryway until Mom could get over there to pick me up. I can't begin to tell you how relieved and happy I was to see my sweet-faced mama. I grabbed onto her and held as tight as I could while she walked me back home and I didn't leave her side again the rest of the day. I also didn't venture back to that playhouse to watch t.v. anymore for a long time. From then on, I remained vigilantly aware of the distance between me and my mom so that if those scary sirens ever went off like that again, I'd be close enough to get home before they caught me. LOL
We live on the same road that our local hospital is on which means that ambulances pass by us daily. Because it's a main city street, we also get a lot of police cars and fire trucks. That means a lot of sirens. I don't hide my head and scream anymore, but a part of me, that little kid part of me, that still cringes a little every time one passes by. I guess there are some things that you never quite outgrow.