TRUE TO LIFE

                   TRUE TO LIFE

          HARRY THOMAS DANVERS

 

         "And with our lifetime guarantee…"

     "Don't you think you should add gold to your portfolio…"

     "Long lasting resigulence…"

     " It's good for you too…"

     "Yes folks, we're going out of business…"

     "With an instant, financing program, you can be the owner of your own home…"

     "Wouldn't you really rather have a Buick?..."

   And it was all true to life; beyond the mixture of snacks, beer and remote control scanner which flipped the channels with acute duplicity.

   There was an easy chair, that was accommodated to extend the living form with its legs in an effort to recline. These were tangible realities, while the pertinent information went on:

      "Mr Clean will clean your whole house and everything that's in it…"

     "Use Babo the foaming cleanser. Wash the dirt right down the drain…"

     "Call for Philip Mor ezz!   "

     "If you are over forty and don't smoke cigarettes, we have the perfect life insurance policy for you…"

     "And the beat goes on…Plymouth wins you over and the beat goes on

     "Be happy go lucky…"

      Take a puff it's springtime"…

     "Winston tastes good like a cigarette should…"

     "Low on tar and nicotine…"

     "You've come a long way baby. You've got your own cigarette now baby. You've come a long, long way…"

   It never really stopped since its conception. It was still T.V.; the Talk Box, the center of the family gathering, as before was the huge radio, where the likes of Amos & Andy, Gang Busters and the Shadow, enthralled its listeners.

   However, this was something quite different.  It was visual as well as audio and the screens had gone from black and white to astonishing color and available in movie screen dimensions. It was colossal, definite and somewhat  alarming'

      "Ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States…"

     "Oh say can you see…play ball…"

     "Just like I was protected by this invisible shield…"

     "Almost like real orange juice…"

     "Who put eight great tomatoes in that little bitty can…"

     "This is John Cameron Swazy with the news…"

     "Good night Chet.  Good night David…"

   There were some close-ups on the Vietnam war and the assassination of President Kennedy, but all of that was completely forgotten, as the screens grew in dimension, while the minds went in an opposite direction.

   No one could deny that it was an optical experience. The ingrediances were certainly there: the snacks, the beer, the reclining arm chair.

   Generations had come and gone and it was all true to life.