Whow! It's been such a really long time. This particular prompt brought so many memories flooding my mind. I remember back then when we used to watch 'Binta and friends' and 'Superstory' and how everyone looked forward to it. Those thirty minutes that the show ran for was very important to us. The worst thing that could possibly happen to you as a kid back then was that your parent sent you on an errand outside of the living room when the show was going on. You would prefer that NEPA seizes the light.
I, being the fourth child of my family did not have the much bravado to fight over what should be played on tv, except in cases were my older ones were away or it was just my parents at home. Only then did I settle in and take charge.
I just remember, I don't know if any of y’all do. I remember that disc tape we used to have then. The one that came in a rectangular black or white casing. The one you could put in your radio. If my memory serves me right, the disc tape was put in a disc player had three compartments in which you can put like the part one, two and three of a film and when one finishes, you don't necessarily need to open up and change the disc cause it just turns and moves unto the best one. I hope that I described it well enough.
I remember we had this small box-like black and white tv for a while before it got destroyed and my parents got a big colored TV. Back then, my friends and friends of my siblings from my compound would come around to my house to watch films since we always had the latest action film. One of my eldest brothers could pass for a cassette dealer cause there was no film he didn't have. You want music videos, Nigerian films, action films, Chinese films, comedy shows, Hollywood films, cartoons, wrestling...name it, he got it. We had lockers and bags filled with movies and series. He was like the neighborhood supplier. My parents bought some too.
Back then, one person had to go outside and rotate the pole that had the antenna mounted high up on it whenever there was a glitch in transmission. It was a painstaking process. While the person turned the pole, the others inside will be yelling, "turn am," "stop, no turn am," "e Don clear," "hei, e Don stop again, turn am," "turn am small again." Sometimes they would even yell at you for not turning, not knowing that you'd gone 360degress like 700 times, and your hands are already getting dry, hard, and red. Turning that antenna requires patience, precision, and prayer. And you dare not say that you can't turn again.
If you were lucky enough, when there's a glitch in transmission and the tv starts to make that ssshhh sound, you could turn the antenna on the TV, and it would go clear. One of my brithers had the magic hand for that. I didn't.
story time.
On a certain day, my immediate elder brother and I were home alone. I was watching a football game first, and he just came in and grabbed the tv remote from me and changed the station. I told him to put my stuff back, but he refused. I tried to grab the remote from him(you know that with direct senior and junior ones, there's less fear from the younger one to challenge), but he refused and threatened to deal with me. I was so angry because what he changed to was a program that we had watched the previous evening, but according to him, he missed some parts. I was so pissed that I thought of how to get back at him. So I went outside and turned the antenna pole. Unluckily for me, since it was quite a rainy day, the pole shook the life out of me that my eyes saw stars when I got free from it. When I screamed and my brother came out, after he had told me sorry, the way he laughed at me ehn. I can hear his annoying laughter in my head now even. Crazy times.
I had so many memories about the media times back then that I could share. But wait, see how far technology has gone. Change is constant mehn!
Thanks for stopping by.
SOKA 🖤