My dad’s childhood was the 1940s, and he became a teenager in 1951. He said that most evenings his family were DOING things together: gardening, playing games outdoors or indoors, singing songs with someone playing the piano, cub scouts / Boy Scouts, lots of summer evenings at the lakes that were within walking distance from the small town that they lived in. Later on, high school sports, high school band, high school theater, parties. They did listen to a few radio shows every week. They were one of the first folks in town to have a TV, but this was not long before he graduated from high school and struck out on his own, at the age of 17, which was normal then.
My sisters and I spent most childhood evenings watching TV. I completely stopped watching TV at about the age of 13 or 14.
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