First, yes I’m bloody old. I had a small and cheap transistor radio mid/late the late 1960s. I got it for Christmas and I listened to it at night before I went to sleep. We had a much bigger multi-band transistor radio they kept in the kitchen that was a fancy one that was dual power. Batteries were expensive and often hard to afford as a kid. I do remember trying to make those batteries last as long as possible. Because we only went to town once a week sometimes even only twice a month. But the things I heard and learned about if the air was right and the am skip was good, and I could find those far distant stations was wondrous to a child.
We did have a cassette tape recorder by 1972 at the latest. It wasn’t that me and my sisters each had a recorder, we just had the one for the whole family. And I can remember arguing about who got to use first-- me or my sisters. Kind of like the old RCA black and white tube TV. And most families had one. I can remember my Grandfather using it to record Polka and waltz music that he played and some voice stories of his early life. When he died in 1973 I was given a box of dozens of cassettes he had recorded telling those stories and him playing his banjo. Sadly he tapes have long since been worn out.
Thanks for the memory prompt! Those times were often hard at the moment, but for each one of those there is an equally good memory of family and friends over shadowing them. You made my tea taste better this morning.
Hmm. 1970 is a little early for a kid to have a portable cassette recorder. Transistor radios were just getting affordable enough to give a kid.
First, yes I’m bloody old. I had a small and cheap transistor radio mid/late the late 1960s. I got it for Christmas and I listened to it at night before I went to sleep. We had a much bigger multi-band transistor radio they kept in the kitchen that was a fancy one that was dual power. Batteries were expensive and often hard to afford as a kid. I do remember trying to make those batteries last as long as possible. Because we only went to town once a week sometimes even only twice a month. But the things I heard and learned about if the air was right and the am skip was good, and I could find those far distant stations was wondrous to a child.
We did have a cassette tape recorder by 1972 at the latest. It wasn’t that me and my sisters each had a recorder, we just had the one for the whole family. And I can remember arguing about who got to use first-- me or my sisters. Kind of like the old RCA black and white tube TV. And most families had one. I can remember my Grandfather using it to record Polka and waltz music that he played and some voice stories of his early life. When he died in 1973 I was given a box of dozens of cassettes he had recorded telling those stories and him playing his banjo. Sadly he tapes have long since been worn out.
Thanks for the memory prompt! Those times were often hard at the moment, but for each one of those there is an equally good memory of family and friends over shadowing them. You made my tea taste better this morning.