3-D Revisited

Bonnie and I took our grandson to see Journey to the Center of the Earth this afternoon. The plot was predictable, but the 3-D effects took me back to the Liberty Theater in Plainfield, NJ. It's hard to believe that 56 years ago I saw my first 3-D movie, Bwana Devil. I still remember the lion jumping into the audience, and more than one spear coming at us. I ducked then and, on a couple of occasions, I ducked today. There we sat, two adults whose ages total 130 years, and an almost-seven-year-old. The enjoyment level was similar for each of us.

We got our first television set in 1950. It was a 17" RCA set, and we received three channels. It was magic! Color came along, but I left for college before my mom and dad got a color set. That RCA monster served us well until the early 1970s. I grew up on Dave Garroway, Ed Sullivan, Milton Berle, Howdy Doody, The Lone Ranger, Hopalong Cassidy, Roy Rogers and, of course, American Bandstand.

Bonnie and I still had a 21" Zenith color set in the late 1980s. A small girl from our church came to visit one afternoon and asked for the remote. I told her that we didn't have one.

"How do you turn on your TV set?" she asked.

"Like this," I replied, as I walked to the TV set and pulled out the "On/Off" switch.

With awe in her voice she then asked, "How do you change channels?"

"Like this," I answered, turning the knob that controlled the stations.

"That is so cool!" she said. I suddenly felt very old and bordering on being outdated.

I remember reading once that not too many years into the future three dimensional television that produced lifelike pictures would be standard. I also recall that these would not require special glasses.Now that's what I call reality TV.