February 13th, 2017 – My Mom’s old transistor radio; it still works well, and it reminds me of how she would travel to Vancouver on the bus to visit us, headphones on, listening to CBC Radio all the way to the Coast. I think it belonged to her father, my Grandpa; she always referred to it as “Dad’s radio”, so that’s probably a fair guess that it was his first and that she acquired it later.
Grandpa died young, when he was in his 60’s, so my guess is that Mom took it as a memento of Grandpa’s love affair with radios; I have his old tube radio too, which also still works. Growing up, for a long time, we only had two channels to watch and so the radio was a constant friend. When I’d go to bed, if I couldn’t sleep (which has been a common theme my entire life), sometimes I’d listen to the radio dramas on CBC. I can’t remember any of the show names or storylines, but I loved listening to the sound effects and wondered how they made them all. What a wonderful job that must be. And now, as an adult, I am returning to CBC radio more and more. The repetition of limited playlists and inane chatter is less interesting than the intellectual comedy shows, the excellent news coverage, the interesting educational shows. It tends to be my friend on the long drives to some of the sites I spend time at.
I’m anything but a hoarder, I don’t keep every item that holds a memory, but some things need to be retained. Like this functional transistor radio. Today this little radio sits in a spot where I see it every day and, whenever I look at it, hidden in its leather case (not shown), it reminds me of those old radio shows as well as Mom.
117 Photos in 2017 – 14. Radio Day (13th February)
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They also added this photo to their favourites