Commercials. That is often a dirty word when I am watching a program on television.
It seems that when the story becomes really interesting and has me “hooked,” there marches in a whole train of commercials. I have counted as many as a dozen, one right after another. It hasn't always been that way.
I remember when I heard my first commercial. It was on the radio back in the 1930s. As I remember it, the programs had only station identification between them. Imagine that!
Maybe there were commercials of a sort, but I don't remember them.
Then the fateful day arrived when I heard my first “singing” commercial. I was mesmerized. If you were around me in those days you would have heard me singing them, off key, at the top of my voice.
Two commercials have stuck in my mind. One for a washing powder, Super Suds, and the other was for Wonder Bread.
“Super Suds! Super Suds! Wash your clothes with Super Suds”
I don't remember the rest of the words, just the tune.
Now speaking of Wonder Bread—back in the day, you could buy your light (white) bread either sliced or in the loaf. There was a bakery nearby when I was in junior high school that baked several days a week.
If you were walking by on a baking day when the bread came out of the oven, you could buy an unsliced loaf for ten cents. It would be warm and fragrant. What a treat!
My brothers and I would devour that fresh warm bakery bread right on the spot. There would be nothing left by the time we got home. How many kids do you know today who would do that? It was a different time.
Fast forward. They lured us in with promises of commercial-free broadcasting. We were willing to pay their small fee to be commercial-free.
What happened? Little by little, commercials crept in until we are where we are today, covered up with commercials, five to seven minutes of them at a time.
Public television is the closest today to commercial-free programming, but others are paying for it. The Turner Classic Movie channel offers old-time movies—no commercials there.
Being one who seems to like to complain, I do have a problem with commercial-free programming. I use the commercial time to go to the bathroom or fix a snack. So if I am watching TCM, I sit there absorbed in the story line, hungry and having to go.
I can't seem to win.