All of a sudden television descended full force on Avalon and Pebbly Beach. I doubt if there was six TV receivers on the whole island in 1948. That all changed in with the new year. The cause for the big change was, in my opinion, the efforts of KTLA channel five. That station started to do a lot of "on location" coverage of Catalina. They needed to fill in a lot of open air time. This was especially true for the mid-day and early afternoon hours.

Unlike todays round the clock television in color and with more channels than you could ever want to watch, early programing was pretty sparse. The west coast was pretty much isolated from the major network sources. Local stations in California were just that, local. The typical TV day in California started at about noon except for Saturday. This meant a lot of test pattern viewing. The one exception was a fellow that entertained TV landers with either organ or piano music. He had a mystical look. Wore a turban and a white suite. He never spoke or showed any emotion of any kind. We'd all sit around watching this guy for hours. Not that we enjoyed his music so much but instead just plain loved TV. Any kind would do.
 
 April 1949 brought KTLA to the island. Nothing was quite the same afterwards. Everyone was going to get the chance to see him or herself on TV. This caused a great  enough demand for TV set to convince one of our Pebbly neighbors to get into the sale and repair of televisions. He became the "Muntz" man. For some strange reason that little off brand TV was very popular in our part of southern California. Rumor had it that the "Muntz" name was a brain child of Howard Hughes. At any rate about half the homes at Pebbly Beach acquired that strange after dark glowing living room window. Everyone watched TV in the dark so all you could see was the strange glow caused by the TV picture as it flickered. My dad said he couldn't afford a TV so our window was "Glow" free.

Did I get on TV. You betcha I did. It started with my school "Square Dancing" group. We weren't that good but KTLA sure gave us some air time. I don't remember how many times the station ran those Catalina episodes but it was a bunch. They came over once a week and then ran it daily until they came and got more.

Screen size on TV sets increased very rapidly. All of a sudden Fourteen and seventeen inch screens were the norm. Even a few "Big Screen" twenty one inchers showed up. I mention this because it leads up to a little story about people and gadgets and some of the crazy things we do. Earlier I told you about the first TV set I ever saw. It belonged the Otis and Raymond's dad. Mr. Davis was proud of that little Sears Silvertone TV set. The only problem was that "puny" eight inch picture tube. One day Raymond mentioned that I should come over and watch the "Benny and Cecil" show on the new big screen that his dad had bought. I did just that but It wasn't quite what I'd expected. Mr. Davis had ordered, from God knows who, a big magnifying glass that had brackets that attached it to the little Silvertone. It looked like one big thick eyeglass. The intent was to magnify that eight inch picture to about fourteen inches. Needless to say it left much to be desired. It was indeed a "One Eyed Monster" if I ever saw one. Mr. Davis thought it was a marvel. Who was I to break his bubble? 

I might also mention that the "magnified" Silvertone did exhibit one scary side effect. It tried to burn down the Davis home.

Otis and Raymond's mother Rose was strict and picky gal. She was big enough in stature to pretty much control any situation. She wore her hair in braids that reached almost to her knee's. She was "Hell" on being neat and clean. The Silvertone caused lots of traffic in the living room and Rose was always after all of us to be neat and pick up after ourselves.  

One morning as Rose was going to work, she lined up the kids and handed out the chores and opened all the blinds and windows in the front room. She told the kids that the place needed some light and airing out. After walking out to their old truck she came back and added, "no damn TV till everything is done". With that final order she was gone.

The kids did as they had been told chore wise and went outside to play. Girls one way Otis and Raymond the other way. The neighborhood boy's were all in front of my house trying to repair a broken "Jim Walker" ten cent balsa wood glider. We were using "LaPage' model glue but the stuff refused to work. After about an hour of less than great results I was ready to "Chuck" the whole project. Raymond suggested that we tape the plane together. Claimed he did it all time with his glasses. One look at Raymond's glasses stood as mute testimony to his tape expertise. Raymond went home to get some tape and decided to take the back way or else he'd run the risk of getting "beaned" by the Monica herd.

All at once we hear Raymond yelling "Fire". He's standing in the street in front of his house yelling and waving his arm's. He scared the Monica's so bad that they all dropped their rocks and scattered every which way. Old long legged Otis took off in a flat run with all the rest of us in pursuit. He's yelling"Where are the girls"? Meaning his sisters Judy and Janet. All the noise and yelling brought other neighbors out to see what was going on. Mrs. Coogan was the first adult there. She ran straight into the Davis house which by now had some smoke showing. In the mean time Judy and Janice showed up. They had been playing in the Hanson's backyard. Wasn't long before Mrs. Coogan reappeared at the front door. She had coffee pot in her hand and told us everything was under control. She'd used the cold coffee to put out the fire. Said it was the nearest thing to water that she could find on such short notice. 

As near as anyone could tell the Silvertone was the culprit. When Rose opened the windows and blinds she failed to notice how that warm California sun was streaming through the screen magnifier glass and hitting pappy Red's old over stuffed TV watching chair. That much sun through that big glass made a dandy chair lighter. Kind of a solar powered "Zippo". Needless to say from that day forth that particular window kept it's blinds closed.  Throw away the  burned chair? Naw, no way. Red loved that old chair. He called it his "Feet Ball" chair. He just draped an old table cloth with the inscription "Remember Pearl Harbor" over the nasty old thing and kept on enjoying it. Said it smelled like fresh coffee.