Radio Serendipity

It's amazing what you can find on the Internet.

I was browsing around looking for reference materials on some electronics and wandered into a website that featured "old radios" -- and, lo and behold, they had this radio.

The Longines Symphonette World Traveller Multi-Band radio.

Those of you who lived in the Meyer household might recognize this radio. Those of you who lived in the Meyer household who weren't paying attention, or who came along a bit later, won't.

Some of you who lived in the Meyer household who were paying attention might wonder what ever happened to this radio. I'll get to that in a moment.

But first I want to tell you about this radio. Because this radio mysteriously disappeared from the family view around the year 1974, and reappeared later intermittently. You may have wondered at the time where it had gone. You may have noticed nothing at all, being too busy with your Barbie dolls and puppy dogs and kitty cats and other more important things.

It was in my room.

This radio was my constant companion in 1974, my introduction to modern music: Billy Joel, Elton John, Gordon Lightfoot, to name but a few. This was my new best friend. This is what gave me the strength and confidence to endure three sisters.

I really enjoyed that radio.

One of my fondest memories of that era was going into my room after the traditional Saturday-night bath and closing the door behind me and sitting at my desk and listening to the Top Hits (although I didn't even know what 'Top Hits' meant at the time, I just thought it was cool music) while my hair dried.

On FM. Frequency Modulation. High Fidelity. As Steely Dan would say, "No static at all."

Piano Man. Benny and the Jets. Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Seasons in the Sun. Midnight at the Oasis. Sunshine on My Shoulder. Hooked on a Feeling. Sundown. Jet. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.

What memories!

Finding this picture on the net was like finding an old high-school friend after too many years. Can't believe it was real. Did we really do those things? Do you remember the time we ... ? And then when we did that other thing? Man, the memories just start pouring in.

That radio was a big part of my life right up until the day it died. I still can't believe Mom and Dad let me keep it in my room for so long. But it sure made a difference in my life. It gave me a sense of my place in the big, wide world. And a deep and abiding appreciation for music, the kind of music that touched my generation. Those tunes still get me right here.

And what, you might ask, ever happened to that radio?

Sad to say, Time and children were not kind to it. At one point - I don't remember when or how - it received a serious blow to the side, and the plastic cracked, and the handles got loose, and the reception started to go bad. I in my ignorant youth tried to repair it, and only made it worse. The mechanical case repairs were beyond my skills. I tried to transfer it to a new case, hoping to put it into one of those old-style 1930's recreations, but my note-taking skills were not up to the task, and I was unable to remember how all the wires connected, and I never could get it to work again.

I don't remember seeing it again after departing for college twenty-five years ago. My presumption is that it was tossed out years ago in one of those let's-clean-out-the-attic purges.

But it was sure nice to see again for just a little while.