Thursday, August 27, 2009

Received in my e-mail, pretty interesting, I think.

The Stranger

This is an interesting concept and not the ending I had expected!!!!

A few years after I was born, my Dad met a stranger who was new to our small Texas town. From the beginning, Dad was fascinated with this enchanting newcomer and soon invited him to live with our family. The stranger was quickly accepted and was around from then on..

As I grew up, I never questioned his place in my family. In my young mind, he had a special niche. My parents were complementary instructors: Mom taught me good from evil, and Dad taught me to obey. But the stranger... he was our storyteller. He would keep us spellbound for hours on end with adventures, mysteries and comedies.

If I wanted to know anything about politics, history or science, he always knew the answers about the past, understood the present and even seemed able to predict the future! He took my family to the first major league ball game. He made me laugh, and he made me cry. The stranger never stopped talking, but Dad didn't seem to mind.

Sometimes, Mom would get up quietly while the rest of us were shushing each other to listen to what he had to say, and she would go to the kitchen for peace and quiet. (I wonder now if she ever prayed for the stranger to leave.)

Dad ruled our household with certain moral convictions, but the stranger never felt obligated to honor them. Profanity, for example, was not allowed in our home... Not from us, our friends or any visitors. Our longtime visitor, however, got away with four-letter words that burned my ears and made my dad squirm and my mother blush. My Dad didn't permit the liberal use of alcohol. But the stranger encouraged us to try it on a regular basis He made cigarettes look cool, cigars manly and pipes distinguished. He talked freely (much too freely) about sex. His comments were sometimes blatant, sometimes suggestive, and generally embarrassing.

I now know that my early concepts about relationships were influenced strongly by the stranger Time after time, he opposed the values of my parents, yet he was seldom rebuked... And NEVER asked to leave.

More than fifty years have passed since the stranger moved in with our family. He has blended right in and is not nearly as fascinating as he was at first. Still, if you could walk into my parents' den today, you would still find him sitting over in his corner, waiting for someone to listen to him talk and watch him draw his pictures.
His name?.... .. . We just call him "TV."

Photobucket


(Note: This should be required reading for every household in America!)
He has a wife now...We call her "Computer."

9 comments:

Reader Wil said...

Isn't it a surprising end!! But in fact we all have such a lodger in our family. We cannot do without him, can't we?! But he has now a companion, which wanted attention too! She is called computer and sometimes very annoying, mine certainly is!

Sister--Helen said...

Well Patty I had read this before but I had forgotten...I could not imagine a stranger moving into your home....I am SLOW this morning....You know about 1960 we got a TV...My Dad never hesitated to walk over and turn it off right in the middle of a show..Many things were not watched in our house..and now there are a lot of things not watched in my house...My Grand Kids have gotten used to this...My daughter Melissa does not have a TV hooked up at her house...Benjamin only gets to watch movies...mostly educational ones...but when I am over we get to watch old John Wayne movies...Benjamin loves them...

mommanator said...

cure, never thought of it that way

Jinksy said...

Loved this concept!

Tomate Farcie said...

Very interesting post! I was wondering who it was all the way to the last couple of lines! :)

That's true, though, TV can be so very loud and obnoxious and fill people's lives with nothing, and take all their time (not to mention their money, when they go and buy stuff they see on TV but don't really need)!

I always say I'm going to get rid of cable, but I keep it because from time to time, you'll see a real gem. Last week, they played Lonesome Dove, and Dances with Wolves, which in my opinion are 2 of the best movies ever made in the genre. Plus they have old re-runs I like and PBS programming. So I keep the TV around but it's a love / hate relationship.

Anonymous said...

I was just thinking of that. Remember when television went off at midnight. And it was only only for a few hours each day. And how the kids and us used to wait for the Kraft Food commercials because they were in living color.

Pick a Peck of Pixels

Renie Burghardt said...

Interesting concept is right!

Hope everything went well today, and you'll be able to get back to Farkeling very soon! And to bloggiing as well, of course! :-)

Take good care, Patty!

Renie

dyanna said...

These days television is in the front row, along with teachers, parents and other educational institutes. Unfortunatly it sometimes has a bigger influence than the others.

Marian Dean said...

Well at the beginning I wouldn't be guessing you meant a TV, but it is so true. My father proudly brought our stranger home in time for the Coronation of ER.
Lovely post Patty

Love Granny