Watching Tv for me, has always been a pleasant pastime and everybody in my house knows that. My mom has always told me stories of how as a two year old kid, she didn't need to worry about leaving me alone in the house as long as the TV was on. According to her, my favourite show was Teletubbies and whenever that show was on, count me out of whatever else was going on around the house. Things continued that way, till my brother came along and then, he chose to like something different - Barney and Friends.
Fighting over the TV remote wasn't something we really experienced in my house. My brother usually beat me to it and even when I took it first, he would bribe me into giving it to him. I didn't mind though. I just loved seeing him happy and enjoying whatever it was he liked or maybe I was just too cheap. Well, most of the shows he loved, I enjoyed. You see Supa Strikers? We devoured that show.
We grew up watching DSTV but after a while, we stopped. That's because my dad rekindled his love for reading and was reminded that behind every successful man's story, there was no TV. He suddenly stopped recharging and pestered us to read more instead of sitting around watching TV. Little did he know, we had an engineer in the house.
DSTV's antenna was usually in the form of a satellite dish and that was all we needed then. So, when we were disconnected from DSTV, we didn't have anything else to provide signal. And that meant, we couldn't even connect to the local stations around the house. My dad paid us no heed and my mom didn't really have our time. And thennn, my sister happened.
I don't really remember the details clearly but I remember my sister coming back from school one day and went to the bag we usually kept wires, screwdrivers, nails and the likes. She picked up a wire of measurable length and pressed both ends into two of the holes designed for external connections. Then, she scanned for stations on the TV and local stations began to appear one by one. Then, we were exposed to stations like TVC, STV, Silverbird, Galaxy, ONTV and others. We found joy in these stations because they all offered wide ranges of shows. I still remember so many of the Mexican and phillipine dramas we watched on those stations - Second Chance, Aurora, Passionate Heart, Cosita Linda. These were all dramas that made my television experience.
Then, there were the cartoons aired only between 4 to 6. ONTV was the station that showed the best cartoons and that was where our love for Supa Strikas was developed. Then, every Friday, we looked forward to the football show by 5pm. I still love it and do watch it sometimes. Sadly, there haven't been new episodes.
My sister's engineering achievements did not end with her creating a replacement for the antenna. The TV stopped working once and because my dad wasn't in support of the TV, my sister did her thing. She turned the TV face down and, we, gathered round, watching her keenly. There were two loose wires at the back, so she twisted one end to another loose end. We put it on and it began working again. I was in so much awe of my sister and bragged about her achievements.
She didn't really watch TV much back then but when we called her, she always answered. And she made childhood fun for us. Now, I'm still so much in love with my TV as I was back then. My dad now recharges the DSTV package whenever I'm back from school. So when my people my age say, they no longer watch TV, I cannot relate to it. Teen Titans, Miraculous, Regular Show, those shows made my childhood and they are still making my teenage years. If there was even a way to get them to air recent kdramas on my TV, I'll do it. But for now, we stick to casting.
Image was generated using meta.ai
This is my entry to the Digital Lifestyle prompt for the week