THE ARRIVAL

Up here in the boondocks in the summer

of  '52, television was still out there

somewhere… somewhere else, but not

here… out there in New York, Boston…

but not here where radios ruled our

backwoods living rooms— consoles

 

big enough for Sidney Greenstreet

to hide behind. And like rumors of

war, there were whispers: It is coming…

 It was in the headlines, the editorials,

Television's on the way! It's almost here!

It was on the radio: Any day now!


And then one night just at dusk,

we spied the crowd gathered like

penguins in the snow out in front of

Ward's department store… everybody

gawking at a luminous little round

‘screen’ in the big picture window!