A translation by Judith Turcotte.
We had our first television with a small delay. Other families in the neighbourhood had theirs before us. Nevertheless, television was part of our lives. When I was in first grade, the parents of one of the boys in the class already owned a television. He became very popular and he knew it. He invited his best friends to watch after school. To my great dismay, I was not part of his gang.
I remember Wednesday evenings when, with my father, we would go to my aunt’s house to watch the television series, les Plouffe. I was young and I am not sure I understood the storyline. No matter, the series was followed by an evening of wrestling. That, I liked. I was still too young to understand that it was all staged, even if in my six-year-old mind, already judgmental, I certainly had my doubts. I collected their cards including those of Édouard Carpentier, Killer Kowalski, André le Géant, Mad Dog Vachon and many others. To this day, I do not know what happened to this “precious collection.” I have no doubt that they all ended up in the trash during one of my mother’s cleanups.
I was seven years old when my father surprised us on a Saturday afternoon with the delivery of a television. It was huge. I remember the first program that I watched with my brothers that afternoon: a Disney program starring Chip’n Dale. There were only four channels and my father decided the evening’s schedule. Saturday night hockey was sacred. One program that was unanimously appreciated was the Ed Sullivan Show especially when Topo Gigio made an appearance. Watching television represented one of our rare family activities. Another important program was Bobino with Guy Sanche who insured the parents a moment of tranquility at the end of the afternoon when the younger ones watched the show. This series is a cult favourite that spanned 28 seasons. (5170 programs)
A family without a screen today is difficult to imagine.