The 10 most desired tech gifts of the 1970s, year by year
Cue up “The Way We Were.”
I can still remember reading an article in Time or Newsweek in the 60s about the fact that pay TV was the future, which was sort of prescient, except that their concept of pay TV involved putting coin boxes on our TV sets.
Back in the day I parked my Dad’s car underneath the telephone pole by our house at 4 am, put the biggest ladder I could find on top of the car, and stood tip-toe on the top rung to reach the top of pole where the cable line connected. There was a little metal screw-on device that blocked cable, which I removed on the cable line leading to my room. Voila, free cable & PPV. Months later when I saw a cable truck in the neighborhood, I became paranoid & went back up to put the device back on, wavering around that high up on a ladder balanced on a car roof with a screwdriver in my hand. I realize now I was risking my life just to see nudity on TV, but hey, it felt worth it at the time. I thought that was a better idea than putting coins into a box on my TV.