DAYTON, OH--February 17, 2009, will always have a deep significance in the Baker family. To dad Melvin Baker, it was like he and his family woke up from a years-long dream. To mom Verna, it was like finding a missing treasure, only to realize it had been within arm's reach all along. To 17-year old Chad, it was like seeing the sunrise after a long night. To 13-year old twins Kelsey and Katie, the moment was indescribable--they had nothing to compare it to.
"It" was simply that their televisions - all six of them - went to digital snow. February 17 was the date picked by the Federal Communications Commission for television broadcasting to switch over from analog to digital. For those who received their television from over-the-air broadcast signals, and had not purchased a DTV converter box, their sets would be unable to process the signal received. In other words, they would stop working.
So, what happened to the Bakers?
Melvin is 44 and a heavy-equipment operator for the Ohio Department of Transportation. His shift begins at 6:00 AM, so he is generally out of the house by 5:40. Says Melvin, "I get up pretty early to go to work, and used to watch the morning news while getting ready. But several days ago, when I turned the TV on, there was nothing there, like the station was off the air. So I tried the other stations, and nothing. Just nothing."
He didn't think anything of it until later when his wife called him at work to tell him the TV's were all broken. "She didn't know what was going on," he said, "It was time for Regis, she was not at all happy about missing her favorite morning show."
Again, Melvin forgot about the situation until a frantic call from Katie, one of the twin girls. "She was hysterical. Every TV in the house was dead. I'm not sure what she watched in the afternoon, but she and her sister were like typical teenagers, glued to the tube all afternoon and most of the evening. We made her do homework after dinner, but to tell you the truth, I'm not sure she did it. Her grades certainly didn't reflect it."
"I was pretty sure I could fix the problem once I got home. But it was worse than I thought--way worse. That evening, we just sat around and stared at each other. Chad tried to read a book, but he didn't get very far. The girls were quiet--too quiet. I kept telling everyone that the problem would be fixed soon, but it became clear that it was not going to change."
The next few days were tough for the Baker family. Routines were broken that had featured television as a centerpiece. Daily rituals were obliterated. But over that period of time, a curious thing began to happen.
Verna, 42, works part-time at a local candle boutique. Says Verna, "The first time I realized something was going on was when Kelsey walked up to me, out of the blue, and asked if she could talk to me. I was so dumbfounded I just sat there for what seemed like minutes, but it was probably a second or two. I don't remember what that conversation was about, I just remember it was one of the most wonderful experiences of my life."
Chad, 17, is a senior in high school. "It was weird because, I remember as a child, we used to do stuff together as a family. Then, we started watching TV more and more, and pretty soon that was all we did. It was on every morning before school, on after school, just on pretty much all the time. Then after it went off, a couple weeks ago, it was like going back in time to when I was a kid. We talked to each other. We had fun together. It was like seeing the morning sunlight coming over the hills--just to see the girls talking to Mom and Dad, to see them, I guess, get to know each other. We were waking up to each other's existence."
Another big hurdle was Saturday the 21st. Here were more television-based rituals gone by the wayside. So to cope they all drove to the Columbus Zoo, in nearby Columbus, Ohio. Says Kelsey, "It was supposed to just get our minds off not having TV anymore, but it was amazing. I had seen animals like this on TV, but to see them in person--I never thought it would be so cool. I got to touch a real goat and I think a deer. I was scared at first, like I didn't know if it was going to going to turn into something else, or attack me. I've seen that so many times on TV, I didn't know what to expect. But Katie and I loved it. Well, once we got used to seeing all these animals in real life."
At the end of our interview with the Bakers, Melvin and Verna became very philosophical. Said Melvin, "For years we had been used to this thing, this "presence" with us. It was part of our lives, part of our family. But it controlled us. I hated President Bush because it told me to. I was part of the mass clamoring for 'change', because it told me 'change' was good. I believed in 'hope'. What is 'hope' now? We were all jealous of people, even friends, who had more stuff than we did--because it told us to be jealous. But now, this change has been amazing - like we've come out of a dream - and we're starting to be awake. Alive."
Said Verna, "I've felt for a long time, I had this sense that something was missing in our family. I just couldn't put my finger on it. Like Melvin said, the TV told us we were normal, so who were we to challenge that? Life was what it told us it was. I was really upset one day when a mom of one of Chad's friends told me she had caught them smoking a joint. But that very night there was a show, I don't remember what one, but it dealt with that very thing. It was like it just, it just knew. And it told me it was normal. That should have been a warning sign, but I was so relieved to hear that my son was just like every other teenage boy that I had forgotten all about it by the next morning.
"But now, I know exactly what I was missing--it was family. Togetherness. And to think, it was there all along, but I didn't know it. I want to cry when I think that this is the last year Chad will be with us at home. And the girls are teenagers now. So much time has been lost, and I'm afraid I can't get it back. We just have to do the best we can with the time we have now, rather than dwelling on what we've lost in the past."
When asked why he didn't just purchase a DTV converter box, Melvin said, "Well, I thought the government would provide it for me. Now I know what a fool I was for relying on them."
by Jeff Hoyt
