Pondering Technology and Communication

I'm a child of the 60's.  I was one of eight children in a house with one television and one telephone.  There was no remote for the television that received 5 -7 channels.  The telephone had a dial on it.  We used to play records (45 rpm) on the player in the basement and we listened to AM radio.

So the technology of our television brought our family together.  We all watched the same thing together.  We only had to chose between a half of dozen channels, so compromising didn't take too long.  (Whatever mom or dad wanted to watch.)

Having only one telephone also caused us to learn negotiating skills and patience.  We also learned time limits and memorized all of our friends phone numbers.