To begin, I share these thoughts and memories because I now know I’m not alone. For far too many years I thought I was. Many feel the same way – they feel they are alone and no one else could ever understand. There are more similarities between Humans than there are differences although that may not be the common belief. So if only one person stumbles on these writings and gains something that assists them, my intention is complete. With that said, I move on.
Recently I stopped long enough to just get comfortable and silence my mind for a while. It was quiet and I had no particular thoughts as a focus in my awareness. And as happens frequently I was off all over the place like a kitten with a play toy, my mind visiting places of thought at the speed of light. Moments later I mentally landed on a past memory from when I was around 9 or 10 years old. I was in my bed and was supposed to be going to sleep but a distraction kept me from slumber. That day my Father had brought home a gift for me, out of the blue for no reason. It was a seven transistor radio that pulled in the glorious sounds of AM audio, the quality that sounds like it’s coming through a telephone.
As I listened to the various signals being received by this magic box I was in wonderment that I was able to know the weather in Detroit as it was happening. I would listen until the music came on then retune searching for another signal. I would stop on stations where someone was talking or advertisements were playing. In my home area we had various businesses but I was able to learn about what was available to people relatively far away. Here in Northeast Pennsylvania most weren’t aware of Piggly Wiggly, 7-11, Publix and others from Boston to Buffalo, from Atlanta to Jacksonville or Windsor, Canada and Detroit to Baltimore and Washington, D.C. Right there, right then in my bed I was able to travel to places, at least hear places, that would take hours or days to travel to.
This was a turning point in my life. I would study everything I could find on radio, when it was discovered, its early beginnings, how it worked and where it came from, as in the radio stations sharing programming with the World from their own cities. I was hooked. The radio bug infected me and I would do anything I could to learn about it. Fortunately I had a set of encyclopedias, the forerunners of Google, for reference and I would bounce from one topic to another in my pursuit to understand.
Then finally in 1977 contacts I had made lead me to my first job in radio in my area, the Sunday morning programming on a local AM radio station. Over the next 30 plus years I was either part-time or full time in radio in various departments; news, disc jockey, traffic reports in Miami and finally settling in Engineering taking care of the equipment in the studios and transmitter sites for AM and FM radio stations.
So I began considering, when that memory returned a few moments ago, what would have happened to me or where I would be right now if my Dad hadn’t gifted me with one small seemingly insignificant plastic magic box? I have many, many fond memories during my time in the radio biz and I wouldn’t trade them for the World. I then realized even the smallest influence could change a life. Pay attention to even the littlest of things that tug on awareness. One may never know where it just might lead…
