Turn the Radio On

In the late 1960s/early 1970s, my parents had a transistor radio, almost exactly like this one, except it was green instead of brown. Look at that nifty flip-out stand!

By Joe Haupt from USA [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Probably around 5th grade, I remember desperately wanting a small transistor radio and a wind-up alarm clock of my own. I absolutely did not want one of the new clock radio combinations, as I wanted to be able to carry the radio around with me. One December day my parents had gone to a big city (west to Pueblo, Colorado?? southeast to Garden City??) for a day of shopping while my brothers and I were in school. When they arrived home I went out to the car to help them bring things in the house, and there was a receipt, the kind where they used to write every purchase out by hand, that I couldn't help but begin to read... "1 radio  $?.??" Oh dear! I wasn't supposed to see that! There was a brief moment of excitement knowing they had bought it, but as Christmas approached that changed because the fun of not knowing what I would receive was gone. The receipt I saw may have actually listed both the radio and the clock, I'm not sure now. At any rate, they were both Christmas gifts I received that year, and I enjoyed many years' use of them. Since then, I've always been careful to try to not figure out what gifts are ahead of time. It's much more fun that way!

The hand-sized radio I carried around had two rolling dials, one to turn it on and control volume, and the other to tune in your favorite station. It came in a black leather case. Kids today would surely be aghast to have to use such an antique thing, but it brought in the tunes of the day, and was the coolest thing ever at that point in my life!

These are similar to the radio and case I had, though I remember my radio as being black and silver.

https://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/guest-column-collecting-vintage-transistor-radios-of-the-1950s-and-60s/

https://www.vintagetoys.com/toys/classified/30030

Here's a page from my little sketchbook portraying that magical little box of electronics.

Visit this page of Scribble Picnic to see what others are tuning in on this week.

Penguin Love and a Treasure Hunt

Penguins–what could be more black and white, which is the theme for this week's Scribble Picnic. Did this in rather of a hurry using a 4B pencil in my little sketchbook. I don't appreciate the imperfections of the paper showing up when scanned and enlarged, but can't put the blame for all of them on the paper!

I will be spending the next three days at our huge garage sale (with other families) as part of the annual U.S. Highway 36 Treasure Hunt (400 miles of antique and garage sales across Kansas!) I don't know how every year we manage to pull enough junk treasure out of the house to be able to keep doing this. Oh well, as long as it keeps going out! You can check out more black and white contributions to the picnic here.

All Tied Up

A gift package could be all tied up with string or ribbon.

A shoelace could be all tied up–either a good thing or not, depending on the knots!

A hammock could and should be all tied up.

Our little granddaughters could have their wispy hair all tied up in cute waterspouts.

Yarn could be all tied up in a ball, ready for knitting needles or a crochet hook.

Who knows... it might even get all tied up and turn into something like this...

Crocheted afghan I originally made for my Grandmother T.
approx. 4' x 6'

...or this!

Crocheted baby hi-top sneakers made for first grandson

Go to this page of Scribble Picnic to see how others tied up their posts this week. Sorry to have missed the curly picnic last week, but I was all tied up!