The Snowy Screens
Illustrated by Emma Murphy-Furze
For some reason, none of my elementary teachers could ever figure out how to play a video on the school televisions.They would always ask the same kid in the back of the classroom to come help them. The rest of us would just stare at the screen until the snow disappeared, replaced by the menu screen of the movie.
It was not something I had thought too much about; in fact, I had not seen a snowy screen in a very long time. Today I watch most of my shows or movies on the internet where even small glitches seem to rarely happen anymore. But a few days ago my dad decided to buy a satellite for the television upstairs, and I found myself staring at snow again. I also saw tiny scars that would pop in and out of the image, green matrix lines sneaking in from one side, long bands passing through the screen, making it look as if someone was pushing on the image and pulling a part of it upward. Then there was the sound, the stuttering and broken sentences that were sometimes more comprehensible than others.
Years ago these little things had once been irritating, but now they were fascinating. They threw me back into a time I had not remembered for a while but that made up a part of my childhood; a time when my friends and I would make up names, which I do not even remember, for each type of glitch that passed through the screen; a time when my sister and I cried in anger because a show had glitched in the middle of a good part, or laughed at the humorous image the TV was creating.
It is not exactly something that I missed; in fact, it did not take very long to remember why it was annoying, but it was something that made me reminisce. Growing up in the middle of drastic technical changes, I witnessed glitches almost everywhere, and not only on televisions. The snow covered screen and all of its cousins will always be a part of the childhood I lived.
Comments
efraim30
March 13, 2017I really found this article fascinating because it brought back so many memories of mine as a child. As a child my family only had one tv so my brother and I always had to share the tv. We had an old fat tv, when all of my friends and family had the new 72 inch tv that was flat screen. Reading this article brought back memories that I did not know I had, all the times that my brother and I would fight over the remote or fight over what too watch. My brother was older then me and stronger then me so he always won the fights and he chose what to watch.
I found this article very interesting because it was an exact picture of my childhood, the tv always glitching out and skipping parts. The part where the teacher in the elementary school did not know how to work the tv or computer was exactly the same as in my school. Where we had to call the student who knew the most about technology to come to the front and turn it on and help her out.
Thank you for bringing back the wonderful memories!
epicco
March 16, 2017This article really made me realize how much our technology has progressed and also how many memories little things like TV glitches could bring. In elementary school, I was always that person who would help the teacher set up the TV. Every time the teacher would walk into the class pushing the TV into the room, I knew she would soon call me up to help.
This article also made me remember all the memories I’ve had as a child when the TV would suddenly glitch. I would always watch the canadiens play with my dad and sometimes the TV would glitch mid game which was so annoying and my dad would shut everything off in an attempt to fix it, only to realize in the end that we had missed a goal. This is one of many memories I’ve had regarding this.
All-in-all, very interesting and well-written article!
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