TV

I am confounded by the way we've gone backwards in terms of television sets.

When we were kids the tv consoles were huge pieces of furniture that took up an entire corner of the living room, usually having a place of honor with their fancy cabinets, sometimes including a "hi fi" along with all the tubes and wires to make the tv work. They came in every conceivable wood from blonde to dark walnut, some with nice gold hardware and doors to close them off.

Then in the 1960s everything became smaller. Portable radios were taken to the beach and television sets were small enough to put on a kitchen counter or tuck into a bedroom somewhere. Smaller was better we thought! I even remember a small television screen that was touted as being able to be used at the beach. I think the screen was about 5 inches across but it was bulky to walk around with. We were convinced that smaller was better and we werer delighted to be able to hide our tv sets behind bupboard doors.

Now, suddenly, bigger is better. Once again people are planning their entire decorating schemes around huge, flat-screened, high definition television sets that take up an entire wall of the house and - in the most bizzare cases of all - go over the fireplace. What???

Call me crazy but I'm perfectly happy without a tv set that's the main focus of any room. I like being able to close the doors and forget its there and I have no desire for a bigger, better set. The one we have serves our purposes just fine. But isn't it odd how we seem to go in circles with things? I actually would prefer my parents old RCA console to some of the huge things people have now....