The Golden Age of Radio, Brown Rice, and Kim Chee

I bought some old time radio cd’s from Price Chopper today. I bought Bob Hope, Dick Tracy, The Shadow, Bing Crosby, The Lone Ranger, and Jack Benny. I did it all for memories sake. Why? Because some of my happiest childhood memories were when on Sunday nights after evening church I would come home with my family and my dad would make brown rice to go with his Kim Chee. I would wait and wait, and it seemed like it toooooook forever for that rice to be done. My dad and I would go downstairs to my parents bedroom. He would read me the funnies and do all the right voices and I would ask for bites of the then very hot marinated cabbage delight and brown rice that was always perfect when my dad made it. And then right at the right time, he would lean over to the radio that was next to his side of the bed on the oak desk that I now have next to me as I type this, and he would dial in the radio station just in time for the theme music to be heard for the old time radio classics. I would sit as close as I could get to him, and let my imagination go with the flow of the cheesy mystery/drama’s and comedy’s of the “Golden Age of Radio”. I would wonder as a small child how they got the doors to creak like that, and the steps of people coming to sound like that, and why couldn’t the people in the story hear the footsteps either?? All these sounds and words fed my little imagination as well as the closeness of my dad. We rarely talked, we just sat and listened. After it was done he would always say, “okay, Putt-Putt, time for bed” and give me a swat on the butt as I scrambled off the bed to run upstairs. I had completely forgotten those evenings until now. Talk about a great set of memories! Even when I was in my teen years and angry with my parents, there would be Sunday night’s that my dad would knock on the ceiling, which was the floor of my room, and holler that Old Time Radio was on. I would tune it into my clock radio and fall asleep to the sound of a creepy narrator saying what would be on next time. I loved it though I don’t know if I ever let on how much I did. I’m so glad to have that as a part of my personal history. I am a richer person because of it.

Thanks Dad.