NEW YEAR'S EVE WITH INA, 1932-3

In 1932 Ina and Jack came by a radio. When some of the children learned that $3.00 would put it in working order, they “sent the needful,” as Ina put it. Here Ina describes listening to the radio on New Year’s Eve, 1932:

"Last night Shirley and I stayed up to see the New Year in from the east coast to the west. They began at 9:00 at New York City when pandemonium broke loose on Broadway till we could hardly hear the chimes from the great Trinity Church. Perhaps you were listening in, too. We bathed while the New Year was crossing the Great Plains and getting into the mountains to be heralded at Denver. Chicago ushered it in on Central Standard time. I curled up on the couch and took a nap while 1933 was crossing the mountain chains and reaching the city which sits by the Golden Gate. There again was great sound and we could hear the steamers bellowing and such a confusion of sounds [so that] we could hardly hear the bell tolling out the midnight hour. Earlier in the evening we heard a funny and clever program from the New York studio, “The Kukus.” They put on such clever skits. We heard Arthur Lipman . . . I’ve often read his poetry in the Saturday Evening Post."

This letter is one of my favorites. To think of a rural farm family hearing the sounds of celebrations as the New Year -- 1933 -- gradually arrives in cities across our country is fascinating to me. I love listening to the old radio programs. I have a tape of "A Christmas Carol" as originally broadcast in 1939 with Lionel Barrymore and was delighted to find some radio stations still broadcast it on Christmas Eve. (KW)