Television

Grandma Eckman didn't watch much television, or at least I never saw her and she rarely talked about it, which pretty much leads to the same conclusion. She had one in her duplex, and of course, the television in the lounges of the nursing home were on constantly. She sometimes had a television in her room there, which I suspect belonged to her current roommate. (As she lived there a long time and all rooms were double-occupancy, she had many roommates.) I can’t imagine that she watched these televisions all that much either, as the design of the rooms had occupants across from—and not next to—each other.

But she could definitely hear the television, and I recall that sometimes this irritated her. She liked her quiet.

After she moved into the nursing home, she spent a lot more time at her daughter-my grandmother’s home. When my grandfather was there and not engaged in mowing the lawn, working on the car or fiddling with some electronic device in his basement workshop, the large living room television was on. Like most men, and particularly men of his generation, he primarily watched baseball, football, basketball, “The Wide World of Sports” and Walter Cronkite. If the television was on during her time there, Grandma Eckman was usually in the kitchen with her daughter. Now that I think about it, as her son-in-law was not very fond of her, he generally was in his workshop or the yard when she was there, leaving a quiet living room for her and my grandmother to talk and do crafts.

One of the great ironies of this—at least to me—is that as an electronics wizard, my grandfather transformed their standard black and white television to color in the late 1950s, long before most people in our working class town. Furthermore, his television was always in good repair and his antenna always highly functioning. Basically, if something went awry, he could fix it.

So not only did she have access to television at my grandparents’, but Grandma Eckman also had access to clear, highly functional television. Still, she rarely watched. Television was not her kind of entertainment with three notable exceptions.

First, Grandma Eckman enjoyed The Lawrence Welk Show (1951-1982), and while she didn’t watch religiously, she watched regularly.

Second, she loved the Detroit Tigers baseball team, but she rarely watched them on television; she preferred radio. She had two radios in her duplex—one in her bedroom and another in her kitchen. After she moved into the nursing home, she had one on her nightstand. Whenever either was on, it was usually for a game.

While she never broadcast her fervor for the team, never shared statistics or argued the merits of plays or players, she listened to the games religiously. (Here is another family irony: while I did grow up in a Midwestern family of sports enthusiasts, the only other relative who came close to her baseball passion was my grandfather who was himself a Cleveland Indians fan.) In 1968, she was absorbed particularly in the World Series battle between her beloved Tigers and the previous champions and favored St. Louis Cardinals. While it looked like a secure Cardinals win, the Tigers came from behind by winning (narrowly) games five, six and seven.

Again, she mostly didn’t watch any of the games on television, which she pointed out to my grandmother and mother whenever she thought either was letting my siblings and me watch too much. She listened to them on the radio. Television was to her either nonessential or distracting.

Then there were the televised Billy Graham Crusades. Whenever these were on, she was glued to the television, and so was everyone in her proximity. Since she didn’t go to church very much, this was her worship. And, of course, Rev. Graham was magnetic.