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Thursday, December 13, 2018

DAY 13 -- ANOTHER SKIMPY CHRISTMAS WITH INA


THE RADIO

Ethel found that $3.00 would fix up the radio so got busy and she, Earl and Myrtle sent the needful and we are very glad indeed to have it. -- Ina

In today’s world of high-tech instant communication, perhaps we forget how important the radio was “back in the day.” Ina mentioned the radio one way or another in most of her letters. My impression is that her radio was “old technology” when she got it. “The radio is up and going, but we must look after the connections as we’re getting poor results. I feel quite proud that I could set it up without trouble and we got different batteries, too, and different tubes,” she wrote to Vance. I can relate. I'm so proud when I solve my own tech problems!

On another occasion she wrote, “The radio is doing good work in its new set up and would do better if I’d get busy and do some soldering on connections,” indicating that she, rather than Jack, was responsible for making it operational.

And though I don’t really know, I can guess that they seldom listened during the day. Radio came in more clearly at night. Still, Ina, living in remote Idaho, enjoyed the world that opened to her through radio. “I’ve just been listening to the New York Symphony Orchestra directed by the renowned Englishman Sir Thomas Beecham,” she wrote. “We heard the Portland Symphony Orchestra under Van Hoogstatten a few nights ago.” And again, “If you are near a radio, tune in on the Columbia network Saturday p.m., 7 o’clock and hear Byrd talk.”

And as the U.S. entered WWII, Vance advised Ina to get another battery for the radio as soon as she could, if it wasn’t already too late. I suppose batteries were needed for the war effort and thus unavailable to civilians.
 
So, my guess is that as a part of their evening ritual, Ina and Jack were accustomed to listening to the “6:00 o’clock news.” Our young Sadie, coming from the electrified world, might have found the limited radio time disappointing. She would have found it difficult to understand the talk that adults thought so seriously important. Ina wouldn’t have allowed indulgence in serials and frivolous programing, preferring to conserve the battery for news and enlightenment. It was a part of the farm adventure that Sadie wouldn’t appreciate until she was older. KW

5 comments:

  1. First I have to remember that they had no electricity, and I remember how fast batteries wear out. No wonder they we careful about what they listened to. On the hill as they were, they probably got better reception than Orofino did. I remember that until it got the radio station in the late 50's, reception was poor down there.

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  2. I remember it that way, too. You couldn't get much on your radio until night. Then stations would come in clearly. And as I recall, in the beginning, the station in Orofino signed off early, so we were still left with finding whatever we could on the airwaves.

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  3. That's right! They could only operate during daylight hours! I had forgotten that.

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  4. I had a little transistor radio that I slipped under my pillow when I went to bed at night. I listened to CFCN, Calgary. I loved that station. I frequently went to sleep listening to it. Then, about 4:00 in the morning, reception would be best and it would get loud, waking everyone but me.

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