I’m tuned in to another episode of Sepia Saturday this week, featuring televisions! You’d be shocked to know this is the only photo I could find with a television in it from my grandparents’ collections, this one coming from that of my grandma Norma (Innocenti) Rachocki who is sitting on the couch on the left with a small dog. In the center, I think, is Nellie Gasparri and I’d be willing to bet that’s John Rachocki’s knee on the right. No kids, so I have to date this to the early half of the 1950s. Television out that way in central PA, at best, is still only about three channels. Most areas don’t run cable for cable TV, so you have to rely on an antenna (Still, I know, it’s crazy). The house is decorated up for what looks like Christmas, and the house has a myriad of clashing prints between the wallpaper and carpet. The TV doesn’t appear to be on, or perhaps the camera wasn’t able to capture the image on the screen in the photo, but Norma does appear to be looking at the television (or just not looking directly at the camera. It’s very unlike the other photos we have, to have such a casual sort of photo in a living room type area – most folks didn’t use film this way and saved photos for special events and occasions, so it’s really rather precious. I suppose I find a way for every family photo to be special because they all are to me anyway!
Short and sweet this week as we take it to the Sepia Saturday commercial break.
That is a very nice natural photograph of the two ladies in the living room setting. Norma looks as if she is watching television but there doesn’t seem to be anything on.