Things in my office...

[sleigh]

I don’t know exactly how old the Crosley radio is -- it belonged to my grandfather at one point, and eventually ended up in my room.  The Crosley was what I listened to pretty much every night in my pre-teen years.  It was on the Crosley that I listened to AM broadcasts of Cincinnati Reds games during the summer.  The radion also received shortwave bands, and I could pick up -- especially at night -- broadcasts from South America and overseas, as well as ham radio conversations.  I’d twiddle the dials, slowly panning across the spectrum until I picked up the sound of voices speaking in foreign languages or music unlike anything being played on the Top 40 stations I listened to at the time.  

It was like having an ear on another world entirely, and I’d imagine what the people I was hearing might look like or what they might be wearing. Sometimes I’d make up stories about to myself about what they might be seeing, taking cues from their inflection and pitch even though I understood none of the words.

The Crosley was my window into other places and other worlds.

And it still works, these many decades on.  The tubes take a long time to warm up, but when they do, I can tune in WLW and still hear the Reds games crackling over the speaker, sounding much the same as they did back then.  And sometimes I switch to the shortwave frequencies and pan the dial, listening for voices speaking to me in words that are strange and wonderful.

Comments

[maiac.livejournal.com]

That radio is a work of art.

[parsleigh.livejournal.com]

What is weird is that it has been around here for so long I don't even see it anymore. It really is a work of art.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

How perfect.

K.