Print

Print


Well, starting in '48 we lived in Syracuse with 
GRanite 6-2968.  I remember the two TV stations 
WSYR and WHEN, channels 3 and 8, later moved to 
channel 5 so they could add channel 9, WCNY. 
Channels and call letters may be mixed up here.

I remember them, that is from about "52 or '53 
when we got our first TV.  This time of year 
memories of it already being dark and snowing 
when dad got home from work after the Howdy Doody 
show, ease gently into my mind.  Must be time to 
put up the Christmas tree.

Bob



>Man, am I impressed! 3-4 channels? When we got our first television (a
>Zenith round screen), we got a grand total of ONE channel. People would go
>wherever there was a television set and watch test patterns and comment on
>them (�Gee, yours is clearer than ours!�). I was born and brought up in
>Utica, NY, and the closest city with another television station was
>Syracuse, 50 miles away, but, being a bigger city, they had TWO channels. It
>was years before we could pick up Syracuse stations, and when we finally
>did, it was as if we could pick up China.
>
>
>
>Phone numbers in Utica were 5 digits; ours was 4-0230. Syracuse, that
>megalopolis to the west, had numbers that were both 5 and 6 digits long.
>When I was about 12 or so, we were given exchanges to precede our current
>numbers, so my number became RAndolph 4-0230, which eventually became a
>rather blah sounding 724-0230. There was always something impressive about
>RAndolph (other exchanges were REdwood and SWift, depending on what your
>already-existing number began with). Also, on those rare occasions when you
>called another city, it always SOUNDED different when it rang. It�s great
>that I can now call anywhere in the country for nothing, but we�ve lost some
>distinctiveness with that. All numbers are seven digits long (when, because
>of cell phones, extra lines, etc., will we finally adopt that eighth
>digit?), and the ringing sounds are all alike unless one travels overseas.
>O� sont les neiges d�antan???
>
>
>
>-Larry

--