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care for it. Belief implied that television had a discovered, I would creep into their yard and
5
master plan and that you were against it. It also hide in the bushes beside their fence.
suggested that you thought too much. When Because they had no TV, the Tomkeys were
my mother reported that Mr. Tomkey did not forced to talk during dinner. They had no idea
believe in television, my father said, “Well, good how puny their lives were, and so they were not
Narrative
for him. I don’t know that I believe in it, either.” ashamed that a camera would have found them
“That’s exactly how I feel,” my mother said, uninteresting. They did not know what attractive
and then my parents watched the news, and was or what dinner was supposed to look like
whatever came on after the news. or even what time people were supposed to eat.
Word spread that Mr. Tomkey did not own 5 Sometimes they wouldn’t sit down until eight
a television, and you began hearing that while o’clock, long after everyone else had finished
this was all very well and good, it was unfair of doing the dishes. During the meal, Mr. Tomkey
him to inflict his beliefs upon others, specifically would occasionally pound the table and point
his innocent wife and children. It was speculated at his children with a fork, but the moment he
that just as the blind man develops a keener finished, everyone would start laughing. I got
sense of hearing, the family must somehow the idea that he was imitating someone else,
compensate for their loss. “Maybe they read,” my and wondered if he spied on us while we were
mother’s friend said. “Maybe they listen to the eating.
radio, but you can bet your boots they’re doing When fall arrived and school began, I saw
something.” the Tomkey children marching up the hill with
I wanted to know what this something was, paper sacks in their hands. The son was one
and so I began peering through the Tomkeys’ grade lower than me, and the daughter was one
windows. During the day I’d stand across the grade higher. We never spoke, but I’d pass them
street from their house, acting as though I were in the halls from time to time and attempt to
waiting for someone, and at night, when the view the world through their eyes. What must
view was better and I had less chance of being it be like to be so ignorant and alone? Could a

This is a photograph from the
1960s — approximately the time period
of this narrative — of a family watching
television.
How does this image capture what
Sedaris suggests about the role of TV
in society at the time?

H. Armstrong Roberts/ClassicStock/ Getty Images

166
Uncorrected proofs have been used in this sample.
Copyright © Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers.
Distributed by Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers.
For review purposes only. Not for redistribution.

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