THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 17, 1995 TAG: 9512130040
SECTION: REAL LIFE PAGE: K1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KERRY DOUGHERTY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 97 lines
WHEN Greg and Shelley Giordano were married 20 years ago they made all the usual newlywed promises. Plus one more.
They agreed to live without television.
``I was already a work widow,'' says Shelley Giordano, perched on the piano bench in the Virginia Beach family's TV-less den. ``I didn't want to be a sports and sitcom widow, too.''
Now, two decades and three children later, the Giordanos laugh about the complications that arise when a family deliberately lives without television.
``I don't want us to seem superior about not having a television,'' Shelley says. ``It's just that I don't think we'd be disciplined enough about viewing if we had one. I have a friend who has a television and she is always saying that TV robs her of her time. I think I'd feel the same way.''
Their children say their TV-free status seems peculiar to most of their friends.
``Oh, yes,'' says 13-year-old Alison, ``people think it's really weird when you tell them you don't have a set.''
Her mother says one of the reasons she's held fast to the television ban - even when it would have been a convenient pacifier when the twins were toddlers - was that she worries that TV could interfere with family relationships.
``I think of television as an intrusion,'' she says. ``We went to a seminar recently and the speaker was talking about how many families use television as a way to avoid interpersonal relationships. You can all sit in a room together and watch television and not have any interaction.''
But the Giordanos say that the decision to be television-free in an age of ``Home Improvement,'' ``Seinfeld'' and ``The Simpsons'' is not always easy - or unanimous.
``Our kids are not above knocking on neighbors' doors on Saturday mornings to watch cartoons,'' says Greg, laughing.
Greg admits he isn't above watching television, either. He has a set in his law office which he uses to catch sporting events when he's working weekends.
``If we had a TV I'd watch `Ren and Stimpy' ,'' chimes in 7-year-old Grant.
``Watching TV kills your brain cells,'' retorts his twin, Tizzy.
Alison, a seventh-grader who swims and plays field hockey, soccer and tennis, says she doesn't know when she'd have time for television if the family had one.
``I'm just too busy with everything,'' she says. ``I really don't miss it at all.''
``Another thing,'' she adds, cuddling Tizzy on her lap. ``Our family is really close. I think a lot of that is because we've never watched television at home. We do other things together.''
Other things include music. All of the children play the violin, and Grant also plays piano. The kids are involved in sports. And they talk. A lot.
``The decibel level around here is high,'' Shelley admits. ``My sister told me once she thinks we are the noisiest family she's ever heard.''
The Giordanos laugh about how little willpower they have with television when they do get to see it.
``Any time we go to a hotel we wind up watching television every minute,'' confesses Greg.
The family had a frightening experience with television last January. Greg Giordano was recuperating from surgery during Super Bowl week. Normally he watches the game at a friend's house.
As a surprise Shelley rented a wide-screen television for the week and even had cable hooked up.
How did it go?
``It was awful,'' she groans. ``I sent it back a day early.''
Laughing, Shelley says Alison was the worst.
``I admit it, I couldn't stop watching it,'' says Alison. ``I had one day without anything to do and I watched TV from 8 a.m. to 3 a.m. I only got up to get something to eat and to go to the bathroom. It was like a sickness.''
Greg says he was glad to see it go, too.
``I couldn't get to sleep at night,'' he recalls. ``I kept finding things to watch until 1 or 2 in the morning.''
Although the Giordanos don't have television, they do have a video monitor in the master bedroom. On ``family nights'' they gather to watch a tape and discuss it. But they have a firm rule: no tapes on school nights.
``I love the kids to see all the classics,'' says Greg. ``We've watched everything from `King Kong' to the `I Love Lucy' shows which a friend gave us on videotape.''
But they admit there have been times when they desperately wanted to watch something, usually some momentous news event.
``Our neighbors are great,'' Shelley says. ``They let us watch the Persian Gulf War with them and they called me over for the OJ verdict.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN/The Virginian-Pilot
Living without TV has drawn the Giordano family of Virginia Beach
close together, but that doesn't mean it's been easy. From left are
Shelley, her children Tizzy, Alison and Grant, and her husband,
Greg.
by CNB