Sunday, 29 April 2007

Goodnight Kiwi

I was talking to Mary, my hairdresser, about life when we were kids. We didn't have so much to choose from compared to kids today.

My daughter has access to DVDs, the Internet, a 24-hour Playhouse Disney Channel and many kid's TV programmes. There are more entertainment options than there are hours in the day!

Mary told me that when she was a kid, the weekend highlight was sitting by the radio on a Sunday morning listening to a children's story broadcast. Badjelly The Witch was one story she could remember. Saturday morning was helping her Mum with the washing (feeding clothes into the wringer).

A rare treat was to stay up late enough to watch the Goodnight Kiwi - an animated short that featured a cartoon Kiwi climbing a TV tower and going to sleep. I was amazed that there was something so cool for New Zealanders at the end of the day's broadcasting (something my daughter will know nothing about - "What do you mean they used to stop broadcasting? Why?") You can see it for yourself on YouTube.

In England, our late-night treat was to listen to the BBC Orchestra playing God Save the Queen. I wonder what happened in other parts of the world when TV broadcasts finished for the day.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

In Poland there was a National Anthem played by a symphonic orchestra and then an annoying one-kHz tone waking up the TV-sleepers and reminding not to forget to turn off a set.

An only cool thing was a nice analog clock that showed all three hands meeting at 12. It was an only opportunity to see this because TV displayed it mostly at evening.