When, finally, back in the seventies of last century, television arrived in town, only one channel was tuned in and the signal was so bad that frequently the image jumped and the audio disappeared completely; However, faced with the novelty of having within reach this contraption whose wonders they had heard so much about from people who came from the big cities, all the inhabitants of the place prostrated themselves with hypnotic devotion in front of the screen to, rather than observe, discover what was happening inside that magical device.
The picture glitches improved over time, but the sound never felt like stabilizing. As there was no choice but to continue watching television, although little or nothing was heard, the locals began to invent strategies to cope with that eventuality. As soon as they realized that the only deaf-mute that existed in those parts was enjoying all the programming without problems, they all began to look at him with outrageous envy because, in addition, the blessed mute, with a pedantry that defied good customs, shook his head to deny or nod about what was happening on the screen and laughed out loud by himself without the others understanding why. It was then that many of those people wished with all the desire in the world that they had been born without the ability to listen and speak in order to have the privilege of deciphering what the screen reflected; some decided to plug their ears and spent days without talking to anyone, but that did not work.
Another of the tactics used, especially by elderly women, was to turn the volume down completely on the television and make up the story themselves, according to the images that flickered unperturbed on the glass. A very respectable lady, for example, was absorbed in deciphering a scientific program, where she explained the characteristics and properties of DNA. But when one of the grandchildren asked her: “What are you seeing there, my grandmother”, she answered him with all the naturalness of the world: “A program where they are doing some backstage that they are going to put on the parties on the island of Margarita… And they are very pretty! I'm going to do some like that too ”.
The truth is that the people had to wait another ten years to enjoy a quality television signal; however when someone reminds these stories to its inhabitants, they assure that it never happened.
Image Pixabay
Image Pixabay