Saturday, September 8, 2007

Pictures came and broke your heart, put the blame on VTR.

That's a lyric from a classic song. And since I'm feeling generous, first person to tell me the name of the song and the artist will win a Georgia prize pack, including a map, a crappy key chain and maybe a snow-globe from Savannah. If I'm feeling really generous I'll find find a copy of the Lady and Son's Cookbook.

First of all, I just want to thank everyone who took the time to comment yesterday. As far as a diagnosis, nothing formal has been done. However, both our previous pediatrician and our current pediatrician had already suggested a possible autism spectrum disorder, with Asperger's at the top of the list. While I'm understandably worried, I'm not really surprised that the school psychologist brought this up, either. TFYO has shown symptoms for quite some time. Eye contact has been the biggest flag. It makes her very uncomfortable, and she gets very anxious if you try to look her in the eye. She has sensory issues as well, whether it's tags on her clothes, people touching her ears, or how some kinds of food feel in her mouth. More than a normal four-year-old. She's also a compulsive counter, and likes to count things like fence posts, and ceiling tiles. Perhaps the Count from Sesame Street was an Aspie! At any rate, she will have a formal evaluation and then will likely have play therapy to help her learn how to interact with her peers. She doesn't have too much trouble with adults, but regular play with other kids is sometimes a challenge for her. But as Jennifer noted in the comments yesterday, by the time she's ready for regular school, she'll be mainstream, and probably just continue to see a therapist once or twice a week.

And I meant to post all of that in the comments last night, but our cable was out for the better chunk of yesterday.


Which led Ray to tell me about when they first got cable in his hometown of Trenton, Ga. I've mentioned his hometown before, it's the county seat of Dade County, located in the northwest corner of the state. Here's some info on Dade. The most interesting thing about Dade County, is that there was no direct road that linked it to the rest of the state until almost 1950. If you wanted to head over to Dalton, you had to drive up into Tennessee, and then back down. Likewise, if you wanted to head to Atlanta, you had to drive southwest into Alabama, and then back into Georgia to get there. The picture is of Cloudland Canyon, right next door to Trenton. Hang gliders love it.


Ray said cable finally came to Trenton when he was about seven or eight years old, so it would have been 1978 or 1979. Some of the local preachers opposed it of course, but it came nonetheless. I don't know how many channels they had, but the local cable access channel was in black in white. And all it showed were little typed hand held placards announcing church events, high school football games, and specials at the local restaurant in town.


Then, just as suddenly as cable came, it went. They had city wide outages within just a couple of weeks of firing it up. No one could figure it out until they went out to check the junction boxes placed around the town.


And they were all shot up.


Someone had been using them for shotgun practice. Now I don't know it was target practice for a fact. It could have been some irate preacher annoyed b y the presence of HBO. This was the town where a local preacher led his flock to the top of the ridge so they could cast their "devil TVs" off the mountain. The eventually had to stop because they local sheriff threatened to fine them for littering, since the people who lived halfway down the hill were tired of finding smashed up televisions in their back yard. They now content themselves with the occasional Harry Potter burning, and stomping of rock CD's.


Finally, they managed to get the boxes all fixed, and presumably newly armoured.

And on the little black and white cable access channel, this placard appeared:


"Dear Trenton,

We apologize for the recent spate of cable outages. Someone has been shooting the cable. We have taken steps to prevent this from happening.

Sincerely,
Trenton Cable Company"

And as far as I know, no one ever shot the cable again.

15 comments:

www.ayewonder.com said...

That one is easy Jen. It's the very first video to be played on MTV, Video Killed the Radio Star by the Buggles. Very appropriate song for MTV to lead with and to think they don't even play videos anymore.

Jen said...

Well, that was quick. Mike, e-mail me a mailling address and the Georgia Prize Pack is yours. If you don't want it, let me know, and we'll pass it on to someone else.

Susan said...

I love the cable and TV stories! I have never subscribed to cable. I guess we've just always lived near enough to a city to get decent reception, and we don't have a lot of time for TV. Also, it hasn't ever been a budget priority. My mother got cable when she retired, and honestly, I think she spends a lot of time simply flipping through more channels. Now that Sopranos is over, she cancelled her HBO. Hope your cable is more reliable today!

the rotten correspondent said...

You've gotta love the south, don't you? The funny thing is when people think you're making this stuff up!

Here's some trivia for all the video junkies out there. I took the very first music video class in the country which was offered at Cal State LA sometime in the mid-80s. It was so unique that national magazines covered it. First video shown...the Buggles. Of course.

code - uuckrwuy. Is that an editorial comment??

Dumdad said...

Jen,

I've been out of the blogosphere for the past three days as I was in London for my sister's wedding.

I'm catching up on your past posts and read about your daughter. I have no real knowledge about this sort of thing apart from the articles I read in the media etc. Every child is different by all accounts.

I'm sure all will be fine. She sounds a great kid.

Yes, we all have many things we should be grateful for and none more so than a loving family. You're blessed and so am I in that department - everything after that is a bonus.

Have a good weekend.

(Here in Paris it's rugby mania as the World Cup has just started!)

Molly said...

I am catching up with your recent posts. Your daughter sounds like a wonderful child. I remember a nonfiction book about an autistic child that I read years ago called Sonrise by Barry Neal Kaufman. The specific techniques of this book may be outdated, but the love that the family demonstrated will never be outdated. Plus, I am guessing the child in the book may not have had Asperger's but some other form of autism.

Jo Beaufoix said...

I thought I recognised that lyric, and the shot up cable box and telly hurling holy man is fantastic.

RC is right, it sounds like a different world to us.

Big hugs.

codeword - eeqaixyc - He quakes you see.

No, I don't see.

Ah well.

Anonymous said...

I knew it was the Buggles, a lot of good that did me! Hell I even knew the singer spent a few months (and recorded and album) with Yes.

PS. Cable is the devil's work.

Jen said...

willowtree Cable gives me sweet, sweet high speed internet. And TiVo. That may be the devil's work, but I guess I'm just a sinner at heart. If you really want a Georgia Prize Pack, I'll send you one...really. You're a good enough guy. Just let me know.

Jo If you thought TV-flinging preachers are strange, wait until I write about the snake-handling churches!

mjd I'm a little familiar with the book. When I first started college, I was going to be a teacher, and it was required reading. I'm sure TFYO will be okay, she's got a lot going for her!

Dumdad Congratulations to your sister! I hope the wedding went well. And Mya mentioned rugby over at her blog. And I saw that the UK beat the US today, too. I like rugby better than American football, it just hasn't quite caught on here as much.

RC I vaguely remember when those articles came out. Of course, I was in elementary school back then (don't hit me!). I love writing about the South, because it's still new to me every day, even though I've been here for years.

my two cents Thank you again for all your uplifitng comments yesterday, you are a star. As for cable, I'm a history channel, Sci-Fi Channel and BBC America fan. If I could just have those channels, plus Food Network, PBS and Disney Channel, I wouldn't really need anything else. Of course, the hubby needs ESPN, Fox Sports South, TBS (for the Braves), and all of the news channels. But that's just him *grin*

Diana said...

I had that cassette of the Buggles. I used to play it in college, along with Berlin's "Pleasure Victim" my freshman year. I've been away the past few days (although not with Dumdad, being a coughing couch slug) and am just catching up with you. I'm sorry to hear about TFYO. Even if you're not surprised, It's still hard. If it helps, my brother probably has something similar. The psychiatrist he saw as a kid diagnosed him as ADHD, but he had almost no characteristics of ADHD and pretty much all the autistic traits. He's fairly high functioning, adademically, but has a hard time interacting with people. He's a good guy, though. Hard on my parents. Anyway, my thoughts are with you along with my very best wishes for her.

Susan said...

Oh, the boys in this family would LOVE to have all those sports channels. The Dodgers are on what we call "regular TV" (networks/PBS on three different channels/local stations in a plethora of languages) occassionally, and every once in a while we wish we had HBO to watch something that looks interesting. I have to say though, since the Times stopped publishing a pull-out TV section a few months ago, we never know what is on anyway!

second code word (I may not be a "nerd," but I am a loser when it comes to posting comments) is vosmlloo - kind of sounds like it might be a souther city?

Poetess said...

I believe diet can really hlpe people with Aspergers. E numbers being the biggest culprit.

It might be worth trying to cut them out.

Poetessxxx

Jo Beaufoix said...

Jen you are tagged.
Come and play.
x

Anonymous said...

Dangit. Grand already answered it!
BTW, the message to cable users just cracked me up. It reminds me why there are disclaimers on Windex and such out there. People who actually do these crazy things are the reason we have disclaimers for just about everything.

charlie baker said...

I'm pissed I missed out on the snow globe...It would have been mine had I not been blogging about Sarah Palin. Reconsider the cut off...how expensive can a box of snow globes be?

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