Audio: Radio and Recordings

Believe it or not, there was a time before television. It was the age of the radio –– an era that is most often overshadowed by the era of television. However, the era of radio was just as important as the era of television. It is also an era that Carol can prominently recall.

As a young child, Carol remembers a specific experience with radio. She and her siblings would wash dishes together and listen to the radio. The three of them listened to different programs such as the "Lone Ranger," "The Green Hornet," "The Shadow," and "Batman."  The radio was conveniently placed on top of the refrigerator for use when the kitchen needed to be cleaned. Since the radio was primarily used when the dishes were washed, it was only used between the times of 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.. Carol's family radio did not have any technical problems except for volume. As for commercials, Carol said she didn't remember any. "You know, we were young."

The Green Hornet was another program Carol loved.
https://www.otrcat.com/p/green-hornet

The Lone Ranger was one radio program Carol listened to frequently.
https://durnmoosemovies.wordpress.com/2013/07/04/old-time-
radio-thursdays-002-the-lone-ranger-1933-1954/

Along with a radio, Carol enjoyed listening to records. Her family had a Victrola, which sat in the living room. Her family listened to records whenever they worked around the house. "We never just sat and listened to radio or records," said Carol. The one limitation to listening to the Victrola was that all homework had to be finished first. Carol never seemed to have a problem with this.  As a child, there was no music that Carol was not allowed to listen to. However, there was a certain genre of music her parents did not like. "My parents didn't like listening to rock-n-roll because they didn't like the beat. They listened to Charleston beat music."

Carol did not have much experience with live-music. She never went to a school dance. She never had church dances. She also never went to a concert when she was little. The first concerts that Carol remembers were in upstate New York. "My mother and father would never have let me gone to that. That turned out to be a bad affair." Even later in life, Carol still was never interested in concerts like Woodstock. "Dull, wasn't I?" She laughed.

When Carol was older, she developed quite a varied taste in music. She loved mostly country and western singers, but she also loved other popular singers of the day. Some of her favorite artists include Johnny Cash, Eddy Arnold, Johnny Mathis, Doris Day, Perry Como, Mario Lanza, and Elvis Presley. As for the Beatles, Carol never had "Beatlemania." "I never went crazy over the Beatles," she said. 

More CDs from Carol's collection.
This is a personal photograph that I took.

Some of the CDs in Carol's large collection.
This is a personal photograph that I took.

Nowadays, Carol doesn't even listen to the radio or records. She owns a Bose CD player. The only music she listens to is on CDs. She has a huge collection of CDs. As you can see pictured above, all of her CDs are albums with old favorites. She believes that music sounds better on her Bose CD player than any record player she ever owned. She often rarely listens to music, but when she does, it is as if no time has passed at all.