Dad had an inventive mind. He liked watching TV but hated listening to commercials. Back in the 1950s visiting his parents, he rigged up a long string with the ends tied together and wrapped it around the volume knob on the TV so he could turn off the sound when needed. His father came into the room, grabbed the string and threw it in the garbage, saying it would ruin the TV.

In the 1960s dad got a long lamp cord and ran it under the carpet in the living room. On one end he had a block of wood with a light switch on it and the other end was spliced into the speaker wire of the TV. There were no remote controls back then. When a commercial came on someone would yell “switch!” and the closest one would turn off the switch until the show came back on.

One evening, dad had a friend from work over to watch a hockey game. Dad would reach behind the couch and discreetly turn off the switch. After several sets of commercials the man started to look around the room.

“Something’s wrong with your TV, Joe.”
“No, I don’t think so.”

I was younger than ten at the time and started giggling. I don’t think he told the man and it was quite funny. Years later someone invented the remote control and took away all the fun.
Dad died in 2018 and when cleaning out the house we found the old switch. We couldn’t help laughing at invention number 35.
A friend of mine said dad must have got the idea from Mad magazine, but I said no, it was all him.

Brian Allen
Lewisporte, NL