How Quickly We Forget What's Free

With Sumie attending a board review course this weekend and all of next week, Mimi and I will need to work extra hard to keep entertained.  Today, Sunday, was made a bit easier with a trip to the weekly flea market that's held in the southern tip of Bernal Heights. 

I've been going to flea markets, happily, for as long as I can remember.  And I've watched them change, unhappily, for the worse.  A good flea market should be one part second-hand shop, one part garage sale, and one part rubbish dump.  Nothing should be priced and everything should be paid for in cash - but only after bartering.  Today, though, many so-called flea markets are either outdoor, once-a-week antique shops or collections of regular dealers selling cheaply imported and even more cheaply made crap.  So it was a very pleasant surprise to find that the Alemany Flea Market was a true "flea." 

Mimi and I spent about spent about 90 minutes strolling up and down the stalls.  By the end of or visit, which just happened to coincide with the end of Mimi's only bottle, we had purchased only one item: a vintage Sony AM/FM Tuner.  Having only spent ten dollars, I left happy.  It's a pretty little unit, designed in the late sixties as an integral piece of the first mini-component stereos every created.  Despite it's small stature, I put it at the top of the stereo cabinet, and I think it tops everything off rather well.  It's almost like have HAL from 2001 in my living room.

I'd been looking for a nice, but cheap, vintage tuner for my stereo for the past week or so.  It has to do with our decision not to get cable.  In NYC, each time we moved we'd plug our TV into the cable outlet and hope something would be there.  Each time we did we were rewarded with the major networks, the Food Network, TBS, and the Manhattan Neighborhood Network (which deserves its own post).  Here in SF, however, there was no cable jack in the living room.  Unable to check for free cable, and unwilling to pay for it, we attempted more creative solutions.

We had internet, so we first tried a web-based entertainment schedule only.  As I've written before, I'm a Netflix streaming fiend.  Within a day or two, however, I determined a Netflix only television diet wasn't going to cut it.  We then got Hulu Plus, which expanded the options, but was really just more of the same.  Something was missing.  It took us a week to realize that we wanted our local television back.  

By this point Sumie was ready to break down and get cable.  I had nearly given in to her pleas when I remembered something from my childhood: television antennas.  To get any stations where I grew up one needed a massive, roof-perched television aerial.  A directional one was best.  We controlled ours from inside with a massive dial that rotated said antenna north, south, east, and west.  I still remember spinning the dial from north to south and then running outside to watch the antenna turn.  This antenna could, on clear days, pick up KTVU channel 2 out of San Francisco, which was nearly 200 miles away.  It was fantastic.  And it was all free.

How had I forgotten about this?  Granted, my family and I had been enjoying cable since I was 10 or so, but still.  Why was I so ready to shell out considerable cash for something I could get for free?  Yes, we'd only have the major networks and local news, but that's plenty of television when one has the internet on tap!  Having finally remembered that television could be free, I popped down to the local Radio Shack and, after a modest outlay of 30 dollars for an updated set of rabbit ears and about an hour of antenna positioning, was rewarded with crystal clear, digital reception of Fox, ABC, CBS, NBC, WB, and 3 PBS channels.

Sumie was astounded.  The picture was great, better than we had enjoyed with cable in NYC, and we finally had access to all the local and national programming we needed.  Well, almost.  

Another week went by.  The local channels were great, but something was still wrong.  In New York the major networks broadcast the vast majority of the Yankees and Mets baseball games.  That doesn't seem to be the case in SF, even for the local teams.  Giants baseball, save for the rare game on Fox or NBC, is on a cable only channel.  This is wrong.  I couldn't get cable, but at the same time I wanted to watch the Giants.  Once again, I turned to the internet.  Once again, I struck out.  My only real option was to buy a season pass on MLB.com and stream the games to my Apple TV.  I was about to order the rest of the season when it struck me: what about radio? 

That's when I decided to get a tuner.  And it's been great.  After I returned from the flea market I put Mimi to bed (it was well past her nap time) and plugged the tuner into my stereo.  I turned the dial to AM 680, home of the Giants, and picked up the game from the 7th inning.  Though they lost, I really enjoyed listening to that game on the radio.  It's tough at first!  The format forces you to get to know the names of the players, to consider their level of play, and to picture the action as it happens.  I actually had a little trouble following the game at first, but after an inning or two I was genuinely getting into it. 

The radio play didn't stop with the Giants' unfortunate loss.  Mimi soon woke up and so I tuned in the classical station on the FM side.  She approved!

This may be rather corny and old fashioned, but I'm quite excited to share radio with Mimi.  It's a medium I think we've taken for granted for far too long.  At the touch of our fingertips we have the world.  And it's all free.  Not only that, the format forces us to use our minds to picture events, to piece together a plot, or to remember stats that would otherwise be strewn across the television screen.  As an educator, I can help but think that radio may be better for Mimi than television.  Not as good as books, but still, if the programming is right, quite beneficial.   

I don't think I'm becoming a Luddite.  Maybe I'm just a bit antiquated in my thinking.  Well, at least my daughter will grow up knowing what a "dial" is thanks to my "antique" tuner.  And if you don't think kids today don't know what a dial is, I dare you to ask any 4 to 7 year old what the term means.  You'll be lucky if they do so much as identify it as a type of soap.