Saturday, April 21, 2012

Who knew an old radio could mean so much?

When I was younger, in my early teens in fact, one of my deepest wants was for a new shortwave radio so that I could reach bands that I had no way of reaching with my tiny old shortwave radio.

Finally after much work and effort and insurance money from my stolen bike, I was able to get a DX-60 from Radio Shack, and the rest was history.

That radio got me through high school, and college. It got me through two baby girls and one baby boy when it started to give up the ghost. After the fourth child came along and grew, I donated it to the eldest boy to use as he liked.

Then we moved and I lost track of the old workhorse.


Then last weekend I received a notice of a package in the mail and I drove to town to pick up the mail and run some other errands. There was a large box waiting and it was addressed to me. That never happens.

Here is the video of what happened when I got it home.




It turned out to be a gift from Jason Reese, from Tennessee. The Realistic DX-66. The baby of my DX-60. Wow. I was speechless.


Now there have been a few gifts in my life that have left me speechless, like that gift from our church to the Isle of Iona in Scotland.

But this?
This was not only a gift of a radio, but a connection with my childhood that stirred up parts of my heart and childhood that have been too long unfelt.

It was like going back in time as I held the familiar radio in my lap and instinctively turned it on and the deep rich tones of that great solid speaker sprang to life.

Then up and down the dial I went. Like old friends I headed to the busy parts of the shortwave dial. Back and forth through the frequencies, through my childhood, thorough my fondest memories.

Of listening to the Happy Station from the Netherlands on Sunday nights when I was young, and then over to the BBC for news in the mornings. Listening to all the communist countries, especially Radio Moscow and Radio Tirana. Learning of the heart of Africa from radio stations actually there and broadcasting to me.

Radio Nerd good times I guess.


Last Saturday Jason reconnected me with so many good memories. It was, very very thoughtful.
And I am very, very grateful.



4 comments:

  1. It's funny to me - I can hear stations all over the world crystal-clear now via the internet - and it's still not as satisfying to me as hearing it "over the air". There's just something about knowing that signal is getting to me from how ever many bounces between Earth and sky that gives it a priceless value. I don't know.

    When I was growing up, the idea of all of those far-away places being as close as my little pocket transistor and then my shortwave radio was pretty cool and made finally getting to visit some of those places like Chicago and others just a bit more special.

    It's also pretty cool knowing someone else that feels the same way.

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  2. That one reminds me of the short wave radio we took along to Zaire that first time - so we could hear news from back home. It was so hard to get a clear signal. Most of the time we gave up for all we heard was static. Your gift reminds me of those times.

    And I am a bit jealous of all that bubble wrap as I pack stuff for my upcoming trip to the Congo. Jason - Canada Post doesn't drop it out of a plane to the field! All that packing made me chuckle.

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  3. Nice.

    Reminds me a little of the battery powered valve radio I had as a child. Took a huge (125V + 6.3V for the heaters IIRC) battery that my father was only willing to replace twice - it must have cost a fortune, even at trade from the Eveready rep who sold stuff to the model shop he was running.

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  4. i miss you.
    its cool that someone knows you and cares about you enough to send you something like that. and not to take jason's glory, but its also cool that God is loving on you in that way, by sending you something that you don't need, but that he knows you'd love and would bring a smile to your face, just because. :) its like, if we humans know how to give good gifts, how much more our Father in heaven. how good is God. just made me smile anyways. but maybe moreso cuz i miss you and videos of you always make me laugh. i'm not sure what makes you more nerdy, the fact that you get that excited about a radio, or that you videotaped yourself opening the package and put it on the internet. but, in all your nerdyness i love you and miss you. :)
    have fun with your radio tonight.

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