Chapter 417: Doing big things, eating meat on New Year's Eve?

The sound of firecrackers grew louder and louder. Every household had pasted up spring couplets, and the air was filled with the scent of meat and the smell of gunpowder from the firecrackers. The New Year was drawing ever closer.

On New Year's Eve, the sound of firecrackers in the production team was constant. Especially around noon, those bursts of firecrackers made Li Long feel as if he had returned to twenty years later.

After all, last year, the firecrackers were loudest on the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year.

Thinking about it, it made sense. This year, just by leading the people in the team, he had accomplished several big jobs. Every household had earned some money. Plus, after the implementation of the household contract responsibility system, the heavens were also kind, and the harvests in everyone's fields were much better than when they were farming collectively in the past. Therefore, the people he met these past two days all wore smiles on their faces; everyone was truly happy.

Eating dumplings at noon, Li Long wanted to go back to the horse corral, but Li Jianguo stopped him.

In the morning, he and Li Jianguo had pasted the couplets together, and the house had been cleaned up two days ago. And a little earlier, Li Long had done a big thing: he had run to the Shicheng Department Store and bought an 18-inch color TV!

Originally, Li Long thought he could get it done for at most 2,000 yuan, but only after arriving did he see that in the Shicheng Department Store, a 14-inch black-and-white TV cost over 600 yuan, a 14-inch color TV cost 1,600 yuan, and the 18-inch color TV he wanted was priced at 2,400!

Here, Li Long also saw a relatively novel multi-purpose TV, 9 inches in size, with a TV on one side and a radio on the other.

How big is 9 inches? Many tablets nowadays are 10 inches; just think about that size—it was only a little bigger than an adult's palm.

9 inches was really too small; watching it definitely wouldn't be comfortable. However, it came with accessories: in front of the TV screen, there was a thick, 13-inch glass magnifying lens weighing a full 5 kilograms!

After adjusting the angle, through this glass magnifying lens, the 9-inch TV could achieve the effect of a 12-inch one.

Of course, it could only achieve that kind of effect, and the people inside were a bit distorted.

This was what Li Long recalled. Selling TVs at this time was not like in later generations. In later generations, every TV in an exhibition booth would play all kinds of programs for you, especially those with dazzling colors, letting you see how excellent the true colors of the TV were.

But TVs in this era simply weren't plugged in—for one thing, there were no programs during the day. At this time, the TV in Maxian could only receive two channels, starting at 7:00 PM: one was Channel 2, CCTV, and the other was Channel 9, Shicheng TV Station. What Li Long remembered most clearly were CCTV's "News Broadcast" and Shicheng's "Oasis News." During the day, except for CCTV's children's programs starting at 12:00 PM on Sundays, there were no channels at other times.

The second thing was that they didn't allow them to become "used goods." When others bought a TV, they wanted a new one. In this era, if you turned on the TV and played it, it was defaulted to being second-hand. Therefore, basically, except for the sample placed on the counter, the others were not unboxed.

At this time, places that sold TVs would also sell another thing that could be called quite magical—TV color film.

It was actually a layer of colored plastic film. When this thing was pasted onto the TV screen, the people inside the TV screen looked multicolored or monochromatic; they were no longer just black and white. Of course, it wasn't true color; it was just covered with a layer. It was popular for a period of time, but it quickly disappeared. After all, this thing was flashy but impractical; it was better to watch in black and white.

When Li Long went to buy the color TV, that 18-inch BJ color TV had been sitting there unsold, which actually made him quite happy.

Although it was a color TV, the screen was actually that kind of convex surface. Flat screens wouldn't become popular until twenty years later, and tablets also appeared twenty years later, but it would take a long time for them to become popular.

Li Long had bought this ticket from a scalper. What surprised him a bit was that the color TV ticket wasn't expensive; he got it for less than 100 yuan.

Of course, in his view, it wasn't expensive, but in the scalper's view, it was already a huge profit.

After all, in a small county, there weren't many people who could afford a color TV, and even fewer who could afford an 18-inch color TV.

And most of the people who could afford an 18-inch color TV didn't need to find TV tickets from him.

Li Long bringing the color TV back to his eldest brother's house was done quietly. It was 1983 now, wasn't it? He planned for the whole family to happily watch the 1983 Spring Festival Gala, so after bringing it back, he hadn't revealed it. Once this thing was revealed, the family basically wouldn't be able to have any peace.

After all, it was the first TV in the whole village. Once it made its debut, even if it was winter, the Li family's room would definitely be packed with people, and they wouldn't leave until all the TV programs were over.

However, it would only be like this for these two years. After spring, when land contracting began, every household would contract land, and by the end of the year, when they earned money, there would be many more people buying TVs.

It wasn't that they had to buy an 18-inch color TV; everyone basically acted according to their ability. Some people would buy 9-inch TVs, and some would buy 12-inch or 14-inch black-and-white TVs.

At that time, there would be fewer people running to other people's houses to watch TV.

Only Li Long, Li Jianguo, and Liang Wenyu knew about buying the TV; Li Juan and Li Jun didn't know—children's mouths actually weren't as tight as one imagined. Li Long remembered once asking Li Jun to keep a secret, and even specifically told him that this was a test for him. As a result, in less than an hour, this matter was told by him to another child, and then it spread.

Children's gossip and vanity were not any less.

Watching TV couldn't be done without an antenna. The color TV sold at the Shicheng Department Store only had two built-in antennas and a coil. Li Long still remembered the 101 antenna that was relatively popular in his previous life.

For a considerable period of time, the 101 antenna was a relatively hot commodity in the county's hardware and department store TV counters. Inside was a set of aluminum tubes with wires. Of course, the wires weren't long; customers needed to get more wires themselves.

And before the 101 antenna became popular, people in the village had already started making similar antennas themselves. They used six-strand aluminum wires—there was also a steel wire in the middle of the wire. On a wooden frame, they cut these wires into lengths ranging from 25 centimeters to 60 centimeters and fixed them, then connected them with a household wire, and finally propped up the antenna with a wooden pole.

It stands to reason that most people from rural areas over forty should have had similar experiences. When the weather was bad, they needed to turn the antenna pole outside to adjust the TV signal, making it have fewer "snowflakes" and become stable.

Making this kind of antenna was no difficulty for Li Long. When he was making this antenna in the horse corral room, Tao Daqiang and Yang Yongqiang both saw it, and both were asking what it was for. Li Long didn't tell them; he just told them that they should watch this thing carefully, and next year they would definitely be able to use it too.

Li Long made it very seriously. After all, this thing wasn't like the 101 antenna; that was professional. His amateur imitation, although the materials were okay, if it wasn't matched well, it would be embarrassing if the signal couldn't be received later.

The wires were left over from when they re-wired and installed electricity last year. The engineering team at that time left in a hurry. After all, many production teams hadn't been connected to electricity yet and all needed to be connected within that year, so some leftover scraps were left in the team.

Not only were there pieces of wire, but there were also various quite novel parts like porcelain insulators on the utility poles. The team even specifically drew a person to manage the electricity. This era wasn't like later generations, where there was almost no power outage, or if there was a power outage, they would notify in advance, and it would generally come back in half a day or a whole day.

At this time, because the voltage was unstable, fuses were often blown, and sometimes the pole for the electrical appliances at the transformer would be knocked down. People in the team, especially those children, liked to watch Old Huang, who managed the electricity, close the transformer gate—that required using a special insulating rod. When it closed, it would emit an arc light, which was quite good-looking.

And children born in the 2010s to 2020s already didn't know what a fuse was.

Although these wires were relatively short, at most a meter or so, they had no use in other aspects, but here with Li Long, they were just right.

Of course, the children also liked them quite a bit. They would peel off the several strands of aluminum wire on top, cut them with pliers, nest them into hook-shaped bullets, and then shoot them with slingshots made of wire and rubber bands.

The power was greater than the bullets of water-gel guns in later generations.

After the antenna was set, Li Long took it to his eldest brother's house, and then he needed to find a wooden pole to stand up as an antenna pole. There was also the wire wrapped with an outer skin—this wasn't the wire from the utility pole, but household wire.

The wooden pole needed to be movable, so it could only be circled with wire. Because he planned to put the TV in the Li family's west room, which could also be considered the main room, the antenna pole was at the corner of the westernmost end of the house and the courtyard wall. The corner of the wall was easy to tie with wire and easy to fix. At that time, the antenna just needed to be threaded through the window crack.

When Li Long was setting up the antenna pole, there was no one outside. After it was set up, when the sister-in-law from across the street, Lu Dasao, went out to pour water, she saw it and muttered two sentences. Later, everyone was busy, so they forgot to ask. After all, it was New Year's, and everyone was busy with New Year's matters. The Li family often had rare things happen, so this one didn't count for much.

"This TV, after your house is built, move it to your house." This was what Liang Wenyu said. "The TV you bought, put it here for now. After you two get married, it must be moved back."

"Right, that's it." Li Jianguo also said the same. "Next year after contracting the land, plus raising pigs, by the end of the year, we can also buy a TV here."

Li Long smiled and didn't speak. Where the TV was placed wasn't important; in this era, happiness and joy were what mattered. Reading books every day also had times when it was annoying, and it was also necessary to watch TV programs. Thinking about it, "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" should already be available now, right? "Going to the Tiger Mountain Again" should also be out, right? "Water Margin" is also playing, right? It seems that this year the old version of "Huo Yuanjia" is also out.

"Journey to the West" is also coming soon, and there's "The Legend of Kangde's First Bodyguard," etc. They are all classics!

This self-made antenna will be used for a few years, then there will be the 101 antenna, and later there will be that kind of satellite dish. At first, it was the mesh kind, later it was the real dish kind, and later... it was banned.

After all, this thing was still quite complicated, and this was the frontier, so some things were still relatively sensitive.

After all this was set up, he just waited for the evening to debug it. And at this time, Li Juan and Li Jun had already put on new clothes and couldn't wait to go out to play, and Liang Wenyu was also preparing the New Year's Eve dinner.

Li Long actually wanted to invite Uncle Uncle Lao Luo Shu to come over and watch the Spring Festival Gala together, but Uncle Uncle Lao Luo Shu wouldn't come no matter what. He said he would just listen to the radio by himself. Li Long didn't insist anymore. He planned to go back to the horse corral after watching the Spring Festival Gala—the horse corral here also had couplets pasted for the first time in history this year, and the "Fu" character was pasted, making it quite festive.

In the afternoon, Li Juan and Li Jun hadn't returned yet, but Liang Wenyu had instructed them to return home before 7:00 PM when it got dark, as they were going to eat New Year's Eve dinner. Although there was a custom of staying up for the New Year in the hometown, after arriving here, Li Jianguo thought it was unnecessary. If tired, just sleep. There were no entertainment activities at night anyway. They couldn't play cards all day, could they? —The Li family strictly forbade gambling. If playing poker, only Li Jianguo and Li Long knew how, and Liang Wenyu didn't really know, so it was unnecessary.

Usually, it was after midnight, after setting off the opening firecrackers, that they would sleep, because the next day they had to get up before dawn to cook dumplings. Since childhood, they knew that the dumplings on the first day of the Lunar New Year had to be early, so sleeping early was also as it should be.

However, this time Li Long didn't plan to get up early on the first day. He planned to finish watching the Spring Festival Gala at his eldest brother's house before going back, and then have a good sleep in. As for when to get up, it depended on his mood.

!.

Around 6:00 PM, the sun had already slanted to the west. Li Long and Li Jianguo tidied up the chest of drawers in the room, mainly taking the things off the top, and then moved the TV out from the spare room. Li Long had bought a power strip. The power strip at this time was very simple; it was just an ordinary rectangular white board with both two-hole and three-hole sockets on it.

And the places in the house where power strips could be plugged in were usually on the wall, with black hemispherical covers. Sometimes they could also be connected to the light bulb, where the bayonet light bulb converter was, one could be connected, and the light could also be connected at the same time.

When the TV was placed on the chest of drawers, Li Jianguo and Liang Wenyu both retreated to the back, watching Li Long operate it.

A thing worth more than 2,000 yuan—the entire family's assets weren't worth that much. Such an expensive thing couldn't be broken.

"I'll find time... there's no time today. These few days, scissors and needles aren't allowed to be moved. After the fifth day, I'll find a piece of cloth to sew a cover for this TV." Liang Wenyu suddenly spoke up. "It can't be covered in dust."

Li Long, who was connecting the antenna, smiled when he heard this. It seemed to be unified across the country; household appliances in the 80s and 90s all had their own special covers. As long as they weren't watching, they would cover them. Some families even covered them while watching.

The covers used by ordinary families were all light and thin cloth, which was breathable and would also block dust. But some people, because it was a color TV, used very expensive and thick cover fabrics. When watching TV, they only pulled up the front face of the cover, and the back was still covered—in the 80s, it wasn't that there weren't cases where the picture tube or the parts on the circuit board inside were burned out because the TV overheated.

Think about it, it was clearly meant to dissipate heat, but you added a cover, wasn't that stifling it and raising the temperature? —Even if this circuit board was tough, it couldn't withstand such burning, right? Especially since the frequency of color TV usage was extremely high. As long as there were TV programs, it was usually turned on for a whole night. Over time, wouldn't it break?

"Sister-in-law, a cover is fine for preventing dust, but take it off when watching TV. When this TV is on, it will emit heat. If you don't take it off, it will burn the TV."

"Oh oh, I know." Liang Wenyu nodded seriously.

"Xiao Long, have you used a TV before? You look so familiar with it?" Li Jianguo couldn't help but ask.

He saw Li Long fiddling with it without even looking at the manual, and his movements didn't look like he was messing around at all; they were quite professional, which was why he asked.

The TV at this time came with a thick stack of manuals. Every operation was written on it, and it even explained what to do if you pressed the wrong panel button; the manual would also draw the circuit board clearly, which should be for the convenience of repair personnel.

The manuals at this time were the same as the textbooks at this time; teaching things was clear and plain. Step one do what, step two do what, step three do what, and the people learning it were also clear. It wasn't like the manuals or textbooks of later generations, which wanted to engage in some meaning or classification. For example, in the color TV manual, the first part writes about the origin of the color TV, the second part writes about the significance of inventing the color TV, the third part writes about the classification of the color TV and which manufacturers produce it, and the fourth part writes about the composition of the parts—if it were really written like this, it could make people angry to death.

But many textbooks in later generations, especially primary school textbooks, were like this. The practicality wasn't strong, and there were a lot of empty things—primary school students learning how to use it, the professional significance, etc., just let people who study this major in university understand it.

Sigh.

Li Long just complained about it. After connecting the antenna and plugging in the power, Li Long turned on the TV, and the screen was full of snowflakes.

"This... it's not broken, is it?" Liang Wenyu asked with some worry when she saw the TV screen full of snowflakes. "It can't be exchanged now..."

"It's not broken, it's not broken." The channel of this TV was twisted, not pressed. It was relatively primitive at this time. He said while twisting the channel:

"What we want to watch is CCTV, which is Channel 2." Saying this, he twisted the channel to 2 and continued:

"Shicheng Station is Channel 9. Currently, we can only receive these two channels. They should both start at 7:00 or 8:00 PM. It's almost time..."

"It's there, it's there!" Liang Wenyu saw the faint picture on the screen and said with some excitement.

"It's just not very clear..."

"Eldest brother, you guys watch here. I'll go outside and twist the antenna pole. I'll turn it slowly. You watch and when it's clear, just call me."

Li Long said he was going out, and Li Jianguo hurriedly said:

"I'll do it, I'll do it. You just watch. I don't know how to handle this thing yet."

"No need, you just watch. Call me when it's clear." Li Long hoped to fine-tune it himself. That process and feeling were better than waiting in the room. "I'll adjust it slowly, you guys just watch."

Li Long went out of the room. It was quite cold outside, but his heart was burning.

This was the first TV in the whole village, and also the first color TV. Today, he was going to watch the first Spring Festival Gala in the country on it—this was definitely a gathering of stars at this time.

Li Long hugged the antenna pole and slowly turned it.

This New Year's Eve could be considered eating something fancy. —Of all the teams that could watch TV, this was the only one.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 418 =====