When I Was A Youth

ttto: When I Was A Boy
Frank Hayes

When I was a youth, my employer,
Was a part of that old N.E.T.
And so proud to be a deployer,
(of) Water-cooled COLOR TV.

And on Sundays I'd go to the tower,
To a hut at the end of the road.
Where I read all the meters each hour,
And made sure the diodes still glowed.

Yes, I walked (just a mile) to the station.
In sandals, level both ways.
Through blizzards in March and December
Back in those Golden Days...

Back when Fargo was not even Near-go,
And the microwaves ran to Duluth.
And my heroes were Sarnoff and Dolby,
When I was a youth.

When I was a youth, all our networks,
Were simple, and quite low in cost;
We'd load films and tapes on a Greyhound,
(But sometimes a packet got lost.)

And you kids who complain that TV's "cut too slow"
You don't know how you've got it made.
'Cuz when I was a youth every edit,
Was a slice with brass razor blade.

Yes, I walked (half a mile) to the station.
In sandals, level both ways.
Through blizzards in May and November
Back in those Golden Days...

Back when Austin was not even Aus-zinc
And the telegraph ran to Duluth
And my heroes were Farnsworth and Zworykin
When I was a youth.

We had no IT shop like folks do today;
No PCs when I was a youth.
And the scarriest thing's every word that I say,
Is the total and absolute truth.

And our stills were all slides in our film chains,
And our credits were rolled on a drum,
And our programs were all aimed at kids' brains,
And old TVs tuned down to "one".

And I walked (for a while) to the station.
In sandals, level both ways.
Through blizzards in June and September
Back in those Golden Days...

Back when Brainerd was not even Half-Brainerd,
And the voyageurs swam to Duluth
And my heroes were Ampère and Volta
When I was a youth.



lyrics: Copyright 2001 & 2020, Rich Brown