My dad was a repairman for a few years. This was mid-1960s to the early 1970s; he started doing TV work after retiring from Collins Radio, where he was a radio field engineer for several years. I still remember his shop well. It was in a separate building south of our home. He had lots of old TVs sitting around in different shapes and sizes, although I don't think he had many of the original TVs from the late 1940s-early 1950s. He had an old Wurlitzer jukebox out in the shop that lit up but I don't know if it worked...I've love to have that jukebox now, but I'm afraid it got away from him somehow. I would play with his oscilloscope sometimes to tap the stylus and make the display spaz and jump. After a while of that, he'd tell me to quit. I guess he was scared I was going to break it. He had a big painted metal sign just north of the driveway that you could have seen for a mile or 2 had it not been for the tree lines. I remember several times how he'd tell somebody with bad reception that it was "sunspots" ;D. He had his own pre-printed stationery and was even a member of the local chamber of commerce. I got to watch a lot more TV than I probably would have ordinarily had there not been TVs all around. Most shows that were on were Dad's idea of course, especially the Dean Martin Show and the Jackie Gleason Show (Mother only got to watch her shows, including soaps Days of Our Lives and Another World, when Dad was out of the house or on a trip somewhere). In lieu of kindergarten (or Montessori, what Mother wanted for me), Dad was perfectly content to stick me in front of a TV that could get PBS, that way, he wasn't out any money. I know he had a good business going for a while, but booze and a bad back were his downfalls, unfortunately. I would ask him about it later, and he covered of course, by saying something about how "solid-state" was the turning point in his business. OK, maybe a valid argument, but when you're going for the mixed drinkies morning/noon/night, and Mother would have to take calls from mad customers waiting on service calls that couldn't be completed, the situation is a bit more than the introduction of solid-state.
Meanwhile, a friendly rival in the next town to the north, he was also a repairman but had a storefront in his downtown area, with TVs for sale, in later years he branched off into appliances and flooring. Eventually the rival phased out TV retail and repair altogether. He would go on to be his town's mayor. He passed away a few years ago, and I had to break the news to Dad. It had been years since they'd seen each other. He was one of Dad's last real friends.
Dad's been gone now for almost 10 years. I've often wondered what happened to his tube caddy, with all those different sizes of RCA tubes in it. I kinda miss the >cha-clang< of the remote that came with one of his old Zeniths (he swore by Zeniths). I'd love to know what he'd say now about digital TV and flat-screens. I'd like to think his time as a TV repairman would have lasted much longer ordinarily, but with the way things have changed with sets, I doubt he could do much these days besides restore old analog sets that could be used for VCR/DVD play and be sentimental conversation pieces (especially consoles).
Thanx Cranky for the articles. I read them with much interest.
