Looking for televisions.
When they opened up the doors to get the free TVs it was just too good to pass up.
For months, the guy on TV had told us the TVs were free. Judges and business people and politicians and police told us that was not the case. But we just kept hearing in our brains, “The TVs are free.”
And, boy, did a lot of people come out that day to take a crack at those free TVs. There were so many people pushing at the front of the TV shop, that we did an end-run. We went to the back door. And, lo and behold, just like the man on the TV said, there were people there to open up the door.
We just could not conceal our excitement. Whoa-ho, free TVs. We all knew we weren’t supposed to be in there, the people authorized to be in the TV shop were in there, and we knew we were not supposed to be taking their stuff. But, it was a lark, it was great fun, the guy in the horned hat said it was alright. And the guy on the TV said he was coming in there with us, so it must be OK. He’s here - somewhere.
There was a guy in a uniform up on the steps, and he said, “Come up this way, there’s lots of free TVs.” So we went up after him, and he just kept going up to the next level. After a while we realized he wasn’t really leading us to the free TVs. Not sure why he did that.
Later we found out, if we had gone downstairs, there were A LOT of free TVs, just the kind we were looking for. But, we were by now six flights up; they had already locked the doors to the free TVs.
Some TVs were hiding. We were sure about that. We banged on a bunch of doors but, boy, were they good at hiding!! We found out later they had learned it in school.
Some people made it close to where the free TVs were, but nobody really got ahold of one. A bunch of the TVs were hiding together, real close, and some of them got sick. You’re supposed to cover up your antennas when you’re in real close like that. Some of them didn’t want to cover up and they got their static all over the other TVs. Next day, some of the TVs wanted to have everybody go through a metal detector but those other TVs didn’t want to do that, either. They have a constitutional right not to be metal scanned.
Some people got really mad at the guy on the TV. He really didn’t have the right to egg us on like that, but he was moving out in five days so what was the point of doing anything? It’s not like they could take away his constitutional right to be on TV. And, goodness knows, the TV company couldn’t do anything about it. It wasn't his TV shop, and he would have gotten really mad if somebody had broken into his TV shop, but he said it was OK, and said it, and said it -- for weeks he said it, over and over ...
When all was said and done, come to find out, one of the guys we were with, looking for TVs, his mom said we were “the real heroes,” so that made us feel real good. We taught the TV shop people a good lesson that day, I tell you. And, we all got a pardon, so everything worked out fine. Good times.
(Vic MacDonald is editor of The Clinton Chronicle. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Chronicle. MacDonald can be reached at 833-1900.)
