Transistor radio

grumpy grizzly

grumpy grizzly

Joined
Jun 27, 2007
Messages
3,726
OK guys bear with me. I graduated from //St Pat's in Roxbury Ma, (E12/L4 still) in 62,my parents brought me a tranistor radio. This was great I could listen to Red Sox games at night.  We moved to a BHA Housing project in 63, Fidelis Way, (E29/L11 still) but all my riends still liked to listen to Red Sox games on that little portable. Any of you guys have maybe the same memories?? To me it seems life was a whole lot simpilar/easier in those days.  Get 14 guys to play baseball,right field was 3 outs unless you called it. Opposing catcher caught the pitcher. Man I must be with the dinosaurs!! Any of you guys have similar recollections?? Maybe old school was/is the best school 8) 8)
 
gg ...i agree w/you.....life was a lot simpler back then....i would give up most of todays convienences  to go  back to the old days........well maybe with just the exception of Medical research.
 
You, Willie & me are not the only old farts in the group:


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Indeed it was, or maybe it just seemed that way. The guy in the cell phone store looked at me cockeyed when I said I wanted a simple phone with a rotary dial. I am half way through cataloging all of my 45's and LP's into a computer program (technical aspects handled by the Mrs.) and wonder what the young adults of today would know what they are. Yes, those were the best of times when we were young. Have a splendid and safe day my friends.
 
Everyone had a cheap Japanese-made transistor radio in the 60s, with an ear plug.  You could fall asleep at night listening to WMCA or WABC, a night Yankee game with the Angels, WFIL or a Phillies game, and tons of other night college basketball games or stations from other cities that drifted in and out of range. No boom boxes yet.  No VCRs, Nintendo, DVDs, cell phones, Blackberries or smart phones.  One TV per home and everyone watched the same shows - ABC, NBC or CBS.  Maybe the Yankees on WPIX channel 11 and the Mets on WOR channel 9 sponsored by Ballantine, Schaefer and Rhinegold beers.  Maybe some families had a small B&W TV with rabbit ears as an extra set.
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Life was simpler.  Families were closer.  You knew your neighbors.  People went to church and had picnics and block parties together.  People were more active and were in better shape.  No one seemed to be overweight even thought there were no fitness centers.  No one was on meds except old folks.  People ate at home.  Kids did not graze on junk food all night.  People did not seem to need therapists and anxiety medication.  We played baseball with taped-up bats and balls without umpires and uniforms. Basketball shirts against skins, winner stayed on the court to play again.  Football without the right equipment. 

I was also lucky because my father had, at times, a Department radio in an old spare red chief's car (with bell) for a civil disturbance duties he had in the 60s.  I could transport myself into the War Years radio traffic from Bushwick, the S. Bronx and other neighborhoods.  "Is there any truck available for a working fire in ......?  Send PD for a gang fight down the block...."  Listening for an hour or two on a busy summer night (usually any night) was much better listning to the no-talent actors on Jersey Shore. 


 
Does anybody else remember staying up late to listen to Jean Shepherd . . . and his prank telling folks to go to their local bookstore and ask for a copy of "I, Libertine" by Frederick R. Ewing? 

The prank was . . . there was no such book or author.
 
Can't say I recall the "Libertine". I do vaguely recal Jean Shepherd. As for dept. radios...my dad bought me a "Frequency Monitor" radio from Lafayette at Liberty Ave./Merrick Blvd. in Jamaica back in 1962. (Schildkraut Ford was right next door.) Anyway, in the evening pop would come into my room and hang for a while listening to Manhattan. He had been retired from the job four years at this time but he still tell you where all those 600 series boxes were.  I think he missed it but would never say so. Also, 1010 WINS before it became all news (4/1/65) listening to Cousin' Brucie (The new kid), Paul Sherman, Alan Freed, etc. on the little Westinghouse transistor radio. I miss those days and I know some of you do too, wherever in this great country you lived.
 
8) 8)OK guys thanx for all the great posts. I just wanted to feel the settings from the sixties, I guess there are a whole lot of dinosaurs on this site. 8) 8) 8) >:( ;D 8) 8)
 
To Mack, my father drank Ballatine and I drank Schaefer after they paid for the  NE Patriots stadium. 8) 8)Again thanx for all the posts/memories.
 
I always drank Schaefer because they sponsored the BROOKLYN Dodgers; but I actually preferred the taste of Rheingold . . . but there was no way I could drink it because they sponsored those Damned Yankees.

BTW:  I haven't followed baseball since the spring of 1957, when Walter O"Malley (may he rot in hell forever) moved Dem Bums to LA.
 
Ray ...you mentioned baseball in '57......was'nt Bobby Grimm "Rookie Of The Year" in '57 ?.....his family owned a bar named Grimm's on the corner of Broadway & Rockaway Ave in BKLYN.
 
Bob Grim was Rookie of the Year in 1954 - one of the few years the Yankees didn't make the World Series back then - I guess Raybrag's favorite baseball year had to be 1955 the year "da Bums" won their first and only World Series in Brooklyn!  I got my first transistor radio in 1960 from money I saved cutting lawns - actually cost me $20 which was a lot of money back then!  Don't forget Knickerbocker Beer the sponsors of the NY Giants!

BTW who cuts lawns and delivers newspapers (another great kid job) these days?  We have landscapers and adults delivering the paper by car!

I see in the comic clip Ray posted that Francona is mentioned as the batter - had to be Tito Francona the father of the current Boston Manager Terry! 
 
Forgive me, Willie.  I'll not use the adjective "Old" to refer to you again.  As to the "Fart" part, we'd better ask your wife. ::) ;) :o
 
Ok, I'm not as old as you guys. But I did have a scanner with crystals if it counts for anything. And before my first scanner I took boxes in the hard way. Sitting outside firehouses with my bike waiting for a run So I can peddle as fast as I could to keep up and find out where they're going. 12 years old and helping pack hose wearing a fireman's gloves was a great time. And now I respond out of the same house I chased around as a kid. Life is good. 
 
Speaking of radios, the old "Monitor" radio that I mentioned above needs a good overhaul. Does anyone know of a place that can replace tubes and other gizmos? I'd gladly ship it out to be refurbished.
 
tl-ff said:
Ok, I'm not as old as you guys. But I did have a scanner with crystals if it counts for anything. And before my first scanner I took boxes in the hard way. Sitting outside firehouses with my bike waiting for a run So I can peddle as fast as I could to keep up and find out where they're going. 12 years old and helping pack hose wearing a fireman's gloves was a great time. And now I respond out of the same house I chased around as a kid. Life is good.
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  Sounds just like my own story. Only thing, I got on the fire dept 75 miles from where I used to help pack the hose and ride my bike to the fires. Even the first sentence in your statement "ti-ff" sounds like me (Quote: "Ok, I'm not as old as you guys") Yeap, that's me all right.
  And I too remember the scanners with the crystals. Even the one channel tube radio I first had for the fire dept. (Well, then again maybe I am as old as some of these guys).
 
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