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Post by bjd on Feb 18, 2016 19:30:35 GMT
Ah yes, Radio Tirana and the "running dogs of capitalism".
Until the early 1980s, there was little to listen to on French radio so my husband bought a shortwave/AM/FM/LW radio in New York City during a trip there. I used to listen to the BBC news on shortwave before the joys of the internet.
We still have the radio but don't listen to shortwave any more. I remember my parents having a radio with the names of foreign cities on the glass at the top of the front.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 19, 2016 6:18:09 GMT
My grandparents kept a shortwave radio on top of an old-fashioned, rather fancy wooden radio cabinet that had been converted into a liquor cabinet. It didn't have city names on it, but was a satisfyingly heavy metal gray object with moderne rounded corners. I can remember that weird sound that could be dialed up, too -- I think it was conelrad. It was such a thrill to pull in any station speaking a foreign language.
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Post by cynthia on Feb 20, 2016 2:19:18 GMT
In the '50's, my nerdy brother made a crystal radio in an old shoe box. He tired of it and thereafter I would drift off to sleep listening to far off AM stations, occasionally even one in Chicago, but often could get Nashville, some place in North Carolina, and St. Louis. These days, I drift off to various podcasts, which somehow don't seem nearly as exotic. I guess all the cracking sounds and fuzzy reception of those AM stations made them sound farther away than they really were.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 20, 2016 5:24:39 GMT
Dick Biondi, WLS in Chicago -- LOVED it!
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Post by mossie on Feb 20, 2016 8:16:14 GMT
We had, perched on top of a tall cupboard, a big box radio with a dial and control to switch between long wave and medium. The tuning knob turned a pointer around the face of a window on which were printed all sorts of exotic names. I remember Hilversum and Luxemburg etc.
But particularly our old cat, which would climb up on top of this contraption in order to survey the room. Occasionally he would strech a paw down the back in the vain effort of finding whatever performer he had taken a dislike to.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 20, 2016 11:56:03 GMT
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Post by patricklondon on Feb 29, 2016 17:57:27 GMT
Wow, now that is a wireless (sorry, TSF) of the old school. Now that you can listen to no end of radio stations through the internet, somehow there's never the time actually to seek them out. My blog | My photos | My video clips"too literate to be spam" |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 29, 2016 18:44:19 GMT
My grandmother only ever said TSF.
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Post by mickthecactus on Mar 1, 2016 13:33:41 GMT
That wireless is magnificent.
Presumably only gets French stations.......
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Post by Deleted on Mar 1, 2016 16:46:41 GMT
I always thought that the set is older than it actually is because it looks like 1930, but then I realised that it is considerably more recentr because one of the stations on the dial is "Nations Unies."
UN Radio began broadcasting in 1946 from makeshift studios and offices at the United Nations Headquarters in Lake Success, New York, where it transmitted its first call sign: "This is the United Nations calling the peoples of the world."
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 11, 2016 23:28:53 GMT
This should resonate with more than a few of us here ~  |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2016 23:29:58 GMT
Amen, sister!
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Post by Kimby on Mar 12, 2016 2:04:56 GMT
"Like"
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Post by Deleted on May 3, 2016 14:05:07 GMT
I remember tiddlywinks, but I absolutely do not remember the point of the game.
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Post by Kimby on May 3, 2016 14:50:26 GMT
Flipping your little plastic coins into a cup.
Remember pick-up-sticks?
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Post by patricklondon on May 3, 2016 15:08:07 GMT
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Post by Deleted on May 4, 2016 14:49:17 GMT
That radio is so so very cool Kerouac!! I remember hearing of tiidly winks but never played it. I thought "pick up sticks" was boring and stupid. I do recall the intro of 3 toys that I did really like, "etch a sketch", the "slinky" and of course "Gumby'!!  Oh, and pogo sticks were real popular and I was a natural on stilts, caught on really really fast and loved them. Were I to try today I would likely mangle something. |
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Post by whatagain on May 4, 2016 17:10:18 GMT
Tiddlywinks is called 'jour aux puces'in french.
Sticks picking is still alive. I play it with my daughter.
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Post by Deleted on May 4, 2016 17:15:10 GMT
When I first arrived in Germany as a kid, I was introduced the the peculiar English game of conkers. Painful.
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Post by Deleted on May 4, 2016 17:28:26 GMT
I had an Etch-a-Sketch as a child and was quite proficient with it. I think I even bought a second one when I was in university. One thing that intrigued me even when I was little was that printed on the back of them was "Made in France." I later learned that it was a French invention which is still sold under its original name here of "Télécran" (TV screen). But I am pretty sure that they are made in China now.
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Post by Deleted on May 4, 2016 17:57:32 GMT
Oh, you and your Francophilia Kerouac...  I had no idea, well, yes I did, that your 'roots" did go pretty far back into your childhood/adolescence. I kinda envy your having that level of identification with the "Motherland" so early in life and then, moving there. (I somehow do not imagine my being driven toward Krakow...). As for "etch a sketch", for me, it was a real sophisticated version of carbon paper which I also really loved but, was messy, and you couldn't erase it by shaking. I actually still have some sheets of carbon paper around here somewhere... |
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Post by chexbres on May 5, 2016 7:12:42 GMT
Pick-up sticks was the only game I was any good at - I loved it.
Anybody mention the ViewMaster? I loved that thing, too.
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Post by Kimby on May 5, 2016 10:24:09 GMT
We had a Viewmaster plus reels of stereo images of many of the US National Parks. Still do in fact. Part of my parents' estate. We'll be selling it on eBay, if anyone must have one.
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Post by Deleted on May 5, 2016 12:29:40 GMT
I have fond memories of Viewmaster.
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Post by bixaorellana on May 5, 2016 17:24:14 GMT
To this very day, whenever I see big well-defined fluffy clouds I think, "Viewmaster clouds".
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Post by Deleted on May 5, 2016 17:29:21 GMT
I keep an old-fashioned kaleidoscope in my bathroom, the kind with the chips of coloured glass. I like to lie in the bath and dream...
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Post by Deleted on May 17, 2016 10:40:39 GMT
I remember the big purple ink stamps on the rind around ham and other pork items. (Maybe they even still do it in the U.S.?)
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Post by bjd on May 17, 2016 11:17:00 GMT
I haven't looked at this thread for a while. We had a Viewmaster too, not pictures of parks though. Strange that I can remember the thing itself, but not what we looked at.
I believe the "pick up sticks" game is called Mikado in France. We have one somewhere in a cupboard. I also had a kaleidoscope but got it for my 18th birthday, not as a kid. No idea what happened to it, but it probably stayed in a box in Canada.
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Post by rikita on May 23, 2016 11:31:14 GMT
it's called mikado in german too.
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Post by Kimby on May 23, 2016 12:33:32 GMT
Anyone else remember when cars headlights were dimmed by a button on the floor that you pushed with your foot? (Thanks to Bixa for reminding me of this on Facebook.)
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