The Crosby Chronicles: Caving in to 21st century technology

Well, I took another step into the 21st century the other day when my family bought a flat screen TV. My old 26-inch tube TV still works fine which is why we kept it as long as did, 18 years.

Temporarily it is in my youngest son’s room serving as a monitor for the old DVD player (my oldest son did not want it).

It wasn’t until the very moment when my son helped me put the new TV in the cabinet that I realized how deliriously exciting it was for my kids to get a new TV.

I remember how thrilled my family was when we bought our first color TV. It was in 1970 and I filled four pages of a photo album to memorialize the event. Each member of my family posed next to the impressive looking piece of furniture (back then, it wasn’t the size of the TV but the look of the cabinet that caught people’s attention).

I try not to get caught up in buying the latest thing on the market. I guess part of me doesn’t want things to change.

Now my wife needs to work on me on getting my first iPod. I’m still holding out.

Brian Crosby is a teacher at Hoover High School and the author of Smart Kids, Bad Schools and The $100,000 Teacher. He can be reached at brian-crosby.com.