MY MUM'S FIRST TELEVISION SET
The journey to Sister Vivian's home always came with a bliss. It only meant one thing and i know most people who grew up in my generation would appreciate that fact too cos that journey meant I was going to watch TV, yes !! I was going to watch all those stuff i didn't understand but just the fact that I was sitting behind a screen felt so good..
I could wake the following morning and brag about the fact that I was at Sister Vivian's home to watch tv, the level of bragging was different if it has to do with something I understood, like the watching the " Captain Planet Series ", wow, all the kids around my age who weren't fortunate enough to watch Captain Planet that day would be around me all day just so I'd tell them what the planeteers did this time round to save the planet against the Captain Pollution and his counterparts ..
The journey back from Sister Vivian's end wasn't always the same as it started cos it was filled with beatings and crying cos i was almost always either sleeping or tired and wanted to be carried, but it was also always a no from my mum since she always had my kid sister at her back and the only to get me moving was by giving me some serious beatings..
Sister Vivian was my mum's friend and as that time her home was the only one with a television set in the entire neighbourhood..
So from Monday to Monday, you'd find people trooping into her home to watch TV, this they'd do by first buying some of the stuff she sold in her provision store, that guaranteed them a place on the floor in the corridor where the television set was stationed, the television held it's place at the same spot for only God knows how long... Myself, my mum and my kid sister didn't have to buy anything, yet still we occupied the front row. That's what you get having a TV owner as a friend !
Every evening before we set we out on our TV watching Journey, my mum would sit me down and ask me to tell her the two things i wouldn't do when we get to Sister Vivian's end, and I'd go like,
1. I won't talk when we're watching Tv and,
2. I won't eat when I am offered food
That was our terms and conditions, but it's unfortunate I almost always went against them, I really didn't talk, I just was polite so i responded to people when they talked to me and for the food, I just didn't understand why I wouldn't accept food from Sister Vivian when I really didn't ask her for it, moreover it always tasted nice.....
Fast Forward >>>>>>>>>>>> 1995 (Years down the line )
We had relocated from one uncompleted building to the other and finally my mum rented a Chamber and Hall apartment. It felt like relocating from a slum in the Ghettos of Accra to a mansion in Trassacco Valley.. At least I could now lock the door behind me when mum wasn't around and it also meant my numerous encounters with the Wall Gecko and Scorpions had ended. Nonetheless, the room still remained TV free and the journey to Sister Vivian's end never ended, the only difference was that, it was now closer to our new place which meant, i could leave the Tv room to the house earlier, this I only did if I went against our terms and conditions and that did not stop mum beating me,all it did was to delay the whole beating process till she got home later in the night, and i tell you, that level of beatings were massive cos unlike the ones i received during our walks back home, there was no one in the room to beg for me ...
My mum was/is a trader who bought stuff from Lagos/Lome/Ouagadougou and sometimes Abidjan to be sold in Accra.. Whenever she went of such trips, I was left in the care of a neighbour, I stayed there till it's evening then I go back to our place to sleep... In one of her trips, she brought home a sound system, Yes, a sound system and anyone within that period of time would understand what it meant when i talk about a sound system cos on most of those system around those time was a bold inscription " GHETTO BLASTER ", this was either pasted on one of the speakers or below the cassette slot !
At last there was going to be use for all the cassettes she's bought.... I now could listen to music from Daughters of Glorious Jesus, Tagoe Sisters, Yaw Sarpon Marley and the Asumafour Wailers and list of other musicians... Our mornings and evenings were filled with Gospel Music and the journey to Sister Vivian's home was limited.. Not only did the " Ghetto Blaster " come with joy but it also came with some extra massive beatings for me.. I realized I could hear my voice when I pressed one red button and then pressed the play button, I was unknowingly destroying all the cassettes with my own voice recordings and you'd have to be in my shoes to feel the kind of pain i had from the kind beatings that came with this particular action..
In July 1995, a day after the infamous Accra flooding, the life of my family and all around me changed.. I woke up after the heavy rains only to find a brand new television set in the corner of our room.. My heart started beating fast and skipping some beats in between, I just wanted it to be a lie.. I just didn't know how i was going to live my life now knowing we also had a television set, eiiiii the people in my hood are now dead.. I started asking myself questions like,
1. Would the people in my hood also be watching Tv in my mum's room now ?
2. Would I tell them to keep quiet cos I'm listening to something and it's my room they are in ?
3. Is this payback time for Sister Vivian's kid for talking to me rudely during my times at their end?
This and many more question I asked...
My mum asked to go call Bro Seth, a family friend who doubled as a jack of all trades.. He was into almost everything.. Lo and behold, he came to tune the channels for us.. I nearly dropped dead when i realized that unlike Sister Vivian's Television set, our was coloured... Eii Yesu, so my mum is the richest woman in our hood now... I immediately got sick just so i wouldn't have to go to school, I waited impatiently till it was 4:30pm when GTV would come live.. Oh, it was a great day in my life and under an hour, every child in my neighbourhood go to know that my mum didn't just get a Television set but also a coloured Television set for that matter !!
Our nights after that wasn't the same, people trooped into our home to watch Tv and and the numbers go even bigger after my mum got a Video Cassette Player...
It's 26th February today and it marks the 53rd Birthday of my mum, even though it's not my birthday I feel like the luckiest young man on earth... 20 years ago, she made me the happiest young man and the feeling hasn't changed, it's still the same.. We've had our smile and frowns, good times and very bad ones but one thing that never changed was the fact that, we always remained Mother and Son !! You'd be surprised that my mum till now is still stuck to that 15inches Philips television set !! And just like the joy she brought to my heart and the hearts of the many who trooped into our home daily to watch TV, she still triggers that level of joy in me.....
I could wake the following morning and brag about the fact that I was at Sister Vivian's home to watch tv, the level of bragging was different if it has to do with something I understood, like the watching the " Captain Planet Series ", wow, all the kids around my age who weren't fortunate enough to watch Captain Planet that day would be around me all day just so I'd tell them what the planeteers did this time round to save the planet against the Captain Pollution and his counterparts ..
The journey back from Sister Vivian's end wasn't always the same as it started cos it was filled with beatings and crying cos i was almost always either sleeping or tired and wanted to be carried, but it was also always a no from my mum since she always had my kid sister at her back and the only to get me moving was by giving me some serious beatings..
Sister Vivian was my mum's friend and as that time her home was the only one with a television set in the entire neighbourhood..
So from Monday to Monday, you'd find people trooping into her home to watch TV, this they'd do by first buying some of the stuff she sold in her provision store, that guaranteed them a place on the floor in the corridor where the television set was stationed, the television held it's place at the same spot for only God knows how long... Myself, my mum and my kid sister didn't have to buy anything, yet still we occupied the front row. That's what you get having a TV owner as a friend !
Every evening before we set we out on our TV watching Journey, my mum would sit me down and ask me to tell her the two things i wouldn't do when we get to Sister Vivian's end, and I'd go like,
1. I won't talk when we're watching Tv and,
2. I won't eat when I am offered food
That was our terms and conditions, but it's unfortunate I almost always went against them, I really didn't talk, I just was polite so i responded to people when they talked to me and for the food, I just didn't understand why I wouldn't accept food from Sister Vivian when I really didn't ask her for it, moreover it always tasted nice.....
Fast Forward >>>>>>>>>>>> 1995 (Years down the line )
We had relocated from one uncompleted building to the other and finally my mum rented a Chamber and Hall apartment. It felt like relocating from a slum in the Ghettos of Accra to a mansion in Trassacco Valley.. At least I could now lock the door behind me when mum wasn't around and it also meant my numerous encounters with the Wall Gecko and Scorpions had ended. Nonetheless, the room still remained TV free and the journey to Sister Vivian's end never ended, the only difference was that, it was now closer to our new place which meant, i could leave the Tv room to the house earlier, this I only did if I went against our terms and conditions and that did not stop mum beating me,all it did was to delay the whole beating process till she got home later in the night, and i tell you, that level of beatings were massive cos unlike the ones i received during our walks back home, there was no one in the room to beg for me ...
My mum was/is a trader who bought stuff from Lagos/Lome/Ouagadougou and sometimes Abidjan to be sold in Accra.. Whenever she went of such trips, I was left in the care of a neighbour, I stayed there till it's evening then I go back to our place to sleep... In one of her trips, she brought home a sound system, Yes, a sound system and anyone within that period of time would understand what it meant when i talk about a sound system cos on most of those system around those time was a bold inscription " GHETTO BLASTER ", this was either pasted on one of the speakers or below the cassette slot !
At last there was going to be use for all the cassettes she's bought.... I now could listen to music from Daughters of Glorious Jesus, Tagoe Sisters, Yaw Sarpon Marley and the Asumafour Wailers and list of other musicians... Our mornings and evenings were filled with Gospel Music and the journey to Sister Vivian's home was limited.. Not only did the " Ghetto Blaster " come with joy but it also came with some extra massive beatings for me.. I realized I could hear my voice when I pressed one red button and then pressed the play button, I was unknowingly destroying all the cassettes with my own voice recordings and you'd have to be in my shoes to feel the kind of pain i had from the kind beatings that came with this particular action..
In July 1995, a day after the infamous Accra flooding, the life of my family and all around me changed.. I woke up after the heavy rains only to find a brand new television set in the corner of our room.. My heart started beating fast and skipping some beats in between, I just wanted it to be a lie.. I just didn't know how i was going to live my life now knowing we also had a television set, eiiiii the people in my hood are now dead.. I started asking myself questions like,
1. Would the people in my hood also be watching Tv in my mum's room now ?
2. Would I tell them to keep quiet cos I'm listening to something and it's my room they are in ?
3. Is this payback time for Sister Vivian's kid for talking to me rudely during my times at their end?
This and many more question I asked...
My mum asked to go call Bro Seth, a family friend who doubled as a jack of all trades.. He was into almost everything.. Lo and behold, he came to tune the channels for us.. I nearly dropped dead when i realized that unlike Sister Vivian's Television set, our was coloured... Eii Yesu, so my mum is the richest woman in our hood now... I immediately got sick just so i wouldn't have to go to school, I waited impatiently till it was 4:30pm when GTV would come live.. Oh, it was a great day in my life and under an hour, every child in my neighbourhood go to know that my mum didn't just get a Television set but also a coloured Television set for that matter !!
Our nights after that wasn't the same, people trooped into our home to watch Tv and and the numbers go even bigger after my mum got a Video Cassette Player...
It's 26th February today and it marks the 53rd Birthday of my mum, even though it's not my birthday I feel like the luckiest young man on earth... 20 years ago, she made me the happiest young man and the feeling hasn't changed, it's still the same.. We've had our smile and frowns, good times and very bad ones but one thing that never changed was the fact that, we always remained Mother and Son !! You'd be surprised that my mum till now is still stuck to that 15inches Philips television set !! And just like the joy she brought to my heart and the hearts of the many who trooped into our home daily to watch TV, she still triggers that level of joy in me.....
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