The day after Thanksgiving 1944. We had gone to my grandmother's.

[Warpy]

28. I remember being taken to various downtowns when I was a little kid

so we could look in the store windows at the various displays. My favorites were always the ones that featured electric trains going through little villages. The girly stuff left me cold, much to my mother's despair. I remember layaway instead of credit cards charging all kinds of interest and it was a much better system, cheaper also. I was delighted when some stores started to bring it back.

My parents had the first TV on the block so my mother could watch the McCarthy hearings, white knuckled and furious. However, they usually treated it like a radio, my mother doing needlework and my dad doing expense reports, completely ignoring the screen.

I think that's what made the most difference, TV. Most people are glued to the screen. Like my parents, I tend to listen to it more than watch, paying attention to my spinning while I pay attention to the story line. Once video entertainment was in the home, fewer people went out to movies and they became dating fare. Why go downtown to watch the Xmas parade when you know the best stuff will be on the late news at home? Why look in store windows when the TV brings shopping to you?

I imagine people will be nostalgic some days for the glory days of home based entertainment and store shelves full of cheap goods and limitless credit to buy it all with. I know my grandparents were a bit nostalgic for the silence of the days before radio when you heard your own thoughts instead of someone else's packaged thoughts.

It all depends on your timeline.