All Of The Selves We Have Ever Been
Menu

all of the selves we Have ever been

Radio Days

6/21/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
 

Sometimes when I need to wind down
for sleep, 
I turn on my bedside radio.

Last evening the radio show host was talking with callers about their fathers.  It reminded me how much my own father loved the radio.  

There were many radios around our home in every conceivable shape and size.  Wherever my father was, one of the radios was playing.  In the evenings, dad would hunker down in a basement area he established as his private, personal space.  He especially enjoyed listening to talk radio.  Occasionally, dad would be one of the callers.  During the short delay between call-in and broadcast, dad would race up the basement stairs and turn on another radio so the entire family could hear dad on the air.  He delighted in his seconds of radio celebrity.

While sheltering-in-place, I have kept busy sorting through boxes, envelopes and binders of memorabilia brought down from the top shelves of my storage closet.  Among the treasures, I came across a note my father wrote about his “radio days” as a youth, the time when he began to nurture his love of the medium.

Dad died thirty years ago, but the radio always brings him back to me.  In honor of Father’s Day, I am sharing dad’s notes about his radio days.  Here’s to you dad!

Listening to the radio is like reading a good book.  The descriptions are verbal, yet the mind conjures up vivid pictures.  You might find yourself laughing or crying along with Ma Perkins as her life at the lumber yard took a turn for the worse.

After school there were fifteen minute broadcasts of a variety of adventure programs designed for children.  “Hop Harrigan,” America’s ace of the airways, would blast from the speaker at 3:15 PM.  That segment was followed by Dick Tracy and the Lone Ranger.  Evil-doers were generally finished off in fifteen minutes, but occasionally, there were cliff-hangers.   It would take a number of segments for justice to triumph.

The sponsors of these shows enticed the listening audience of boys and girls into buying products by offering a prize.  By sending in a label or a box top and a small fee a listener could obtain a secret decoder ring, or some other item used in the show’s segment.  Without the item you would surely miss those secret messages sent directly to you by the show’s hero.  Worse, you would be belittled by your peers for not having the latest item.

I remember being eight or nine year’s old sitting in a darkened room listening to “Lights Out.”  The only light in the room was from the glow of the radio dial.  I waited in silence with my heart racing anticipating a good scare.  The sound of the creepy, squeaky door opening at the start of the show…  nothing could compare to that!
​

My eager ears took it all in and went on flights of fantasy.  For a brief time I could escape to places only my mind and imagination could take me.

Those days have passed, but I will always remember the heroes that saved the world from crime and corruption: the Green Hornet, Jack Armstrong, the Lone Ranger…


They are gone, but not forgotten.

You too, Dad.  You too.
​


               Happy Father’s Day!

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Lilli-ann Buffin
    ​

      Get Notified of New Posts 
      Enter your email address and click on "Subscribe"

    Subscribe

    Archives

    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020

    Categories

    All
    Acne
    Adulting
    Advertising
    Aging
    Arms
    Barbie
    Baths
    Beauty
    Beloved Community
    BINGO
    Birds
    Books
    Branding
    Bravery
    Cars
    Catching Up
    Children
    Church
    Cliches
    Clothing
    Comfy Couches
    Coping With Stress
    Coronavirus
    Death & Dying
    Diets
    Dignity
    Discernment
    Drive Ins
    Drive-ins
    Driving
    Essential Workers
    Exercise
    Faith
    Falling
    Family
    Father's Day
    Food
    Friendship
    Fruit
    Games
    Good Intentions
    Goodness
    Good Old Days
    Grace
    Graduation
    Grandparents
    Gratitude
    Hair
    Handwriting
    Health
    Heroes
    History
    Holidays
    Hope
    Houses
    Humor
    Illness
    Imagination
    Influencers
    Ironing
    John Lewis
    Knowledge
    Laughter
    Laundry
    Leadership
    Libraries
    Listening
    Lists
    MacGyver
    Madge
    Magazines
    Mail
    Masks
    Memorial Day
    Memories
    Mental Illness
    Miracles
    Moral Lessons
    Mothers
    Music
    Names
    Nancy Drew
    Nature
    Neighbors
    Oreos
    Other-Mothers
    Our Stuff
    Outdoors
    Parenting
    Pets
    Phones
    Poignancy
    Politics
    Prayer
    Purses
    Reading
    Recipes
    Reinvention
    Revelations
    Rewards
    Rotisserie Chicken
    Saturdays
    Saving The World
    Schools
    Shelf Life
    Showers
    Siblings
    Small Things
    Sorrow
    Speed
    Sports
    Stores
    Substance Abuse
    Success
    Sunshine
    Technology
    Thanksgiving
    Toilet Paper
    Tools
    Truth
    Uncles
    Veterans
    Voting
    Walking
    War
    Water
    Weather
    Wilderness
    Wishing
    Women
    Wonder
    Words
    Work

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
    • Blog
  • About
  • Contact
  • Other Works
  • What Readers Say
  • Home
    • Blog
  • About
  • Contact
  • Other Works
  • What Readers Say