| ||||||||||||||||||||
|
Recollections Radio Programmes |
|
Recollections 1. Frank Ferri Newhaven, Edinburgh |
|
Thank you to Frank Ferri, now living in Newhaven, Edinburgh, for sending me these memories of radio (or wireless) programmes that he listened to in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Frank wrote: |
|
Music "There were daily broadcasts of Housewives Choice or the American Services network, AFN, from Germany and on a Sunday there was Family Favourites and Radio Luxemburg record program. These were the only popular music programs of the time." |
|
Drama I remember: - Dragnet, the American police crime drama series, featuring Jack Webb, a brilliant thriller. - Dick Barton Special Agent with his two accomplices Snowy and Jock. - Into Battle, a series of war stories and (best of all) - 'This is Your Story Teller, The Man In Black' narrated by Valentine Dyle, the man with the deep frightening voice who told stories of murder and mystery." |
|
Coal Fire "I remember baby sitting my wee brother whilst my parents went off visiting relatives, banking up the fire with the precious coal and turning out the lights. You saw the shadows of the flickering fire make weird forms and shapes on the walls and ceiling. With that, and the noise of the draft coming from under the door, listening to these horror stories accompanied with the atmosphere of self inflicted fear would make anybody’s flesh crawl, let alone that of a child. My parents would quietly return, thinking we would be in bed and frighten us with their sudden entry. Then came a big rollicking for not being in our beds and having too much coal on the fire." |
|
Church "My father, a regular church goer, would call me in the morning to go to 10.00 AM Mass. If I didn’t go with him, on his return, if I was listening to Family Favourites (the only source of radio popular music) he would switch the radio off in anger as my punishment." |
|
Frank Ferri, Newhaven, Edinburgh: April 11, 2008 |
|
Recollections 2. Patricia Rand (née Tinney) Victoria, British Columbia, Canada |
|
Thank you to Patricia Rand, née Tinney, now living in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, for sending her memories below. Patricia wrote: |
|
Radio Programmes "Do you remember the days before we all got TV? Do you remember: - trying to tune into Radio Luxemburg so we could get a blast of American Pop? - that great detective series every night after tea, 'Dick Barton'? - Sundays with family socials, listening to Bing Crosby and an American girl called Gale Storm, with the ladies doing their weekly darning on that mushroom-shaped sock holder? No sock darning these days!" At Home "There wasn't a lot of cash to spare, but the bairns sure ha a good time. I have rich memories of great coal-burning fires and fresh linen table cloths. What we lost to Formica! My mother would not drink tea out of anything but a china cup. She said i made the tea taste better - and she was right."
Patricia Rand, née Tinney
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. |
| ||||||||||||||||||||