Radio - "If it's broke, ya fix it."

The conversation about television often drifted towards radio, and vice versa. For Joanne and Vernon, these two things were often tied together and the transition to television from radio was not abrupt. Joanne's brother was the first in her family to buy a radio, he bought it to listen to ball games. Joanne never listened to it, but she recalls her brother forgoing chores to listen to the game. The radio was battery powered, and to recharge the battery it had to be taken to the service station, a place something like this:



 Throughout the interview, I began to catch on that the service station was where just about everything happened in small Midwest towns, but more on that later.
Joanne and Vernon's parents soon had great need of the radio - they used it for news on the war.  Vernon remembers very clearly his parents listening for updates on the draft because his dad was just under 45, the cutoff age. Eventually, he received a letter clearing him from duty. Joanne's father received a similar letter letting him know he would probably have to go to war, but he never had to go.
I was interested to know if they remembered anything about the early car radios, specifically those of the exploding variety. Unfortunately, they did not remember these instances. Vernon did remember his dad buying a new car in 1948 that did not have a radio. His dad bought a radio for the car, however, for $300 - the car was $1300.
Later in Joanne's childhood, she remembers listening to programs on the family radio. They both started listing the shows they liked, which included Fibber McGee and Molly and Inner Sanctum (at this part they mentioned "the door squeaking" and started laughing - I'm not sure why), although Inner Sanctum was on at 9pm on Wednesdays and they usually couldn't stay up that late.
 
 For both of them, their radio was located on the kitchen table in the dining room. The commercials they remember are for Clapper Girl baking powder and for Norton salt, which makes me wonder if advertisements of the time were aimed at housewives, since they were generally the ones who spent the most time at home and did the shopping.
When I asked if they ever dealt with the radio breaking, Vernon adamantly insisted that they did, but that they did not just buy a new one. "The problem," he said, "is with people today just buying a new one every time something breaks. When I was young, we fixed it."
Joanne and Vernon got their own combination radio, record player, and television set in 1959, several years after getting married, which factored in greatly to their experiences with sound recordings.

Television - "You've never heard of Lawrence Welk?!"

Joanne and Vernon both grew up on farms, not far from Kirksville. They readily shared with me what life was like as a child - it involved a lot of work, from gardening and tending the animals to canning produce and cooking. There was also a fair amount of play; Joanne's favorite thing to do with her siblings was to create race tracks for their toy cars in the creek bed. Life did not, however, involve very much television. It was expensive for the time, and in fact, neither of their parents' households owned televisions until shortly before they were married, and they did not have one as a married couple until several years later. They both recalled that their parents hardly watched their televisions, although Joanne does remember her father rocking her son's bassinet while watching a show. At first, their television only had one channel, through antenna, and they think that was probably KTMO, which they used to watch Amateur Hour (I had to Google this - it was a talent show type program that brought fame to such stars as Frank Sinatra and Ann Margret). "Lawrence Welk came along there somewhere," Joanne said, and they both laughed. It soon became woefully apparent that I did not know who Lawrence Welk was, and they were reasonably shocked. Vernon explained Welk's career as a big band director to me and recreated his famous "a-one and a-two and a..." and they laughed some more. Of course, I later researched The Lawrence Welk Show and found a recording of the network premier:

 

among other clips and episodes. I found the show to be pleasant and entertaining enough, but it was truly a different time and I don't think this kind of show would find an audience these days, especially with the younger crowd.
We also talked about their experiences with television as parents. They felt that many kids these days spend too much time vegged out in front of the TV and not enough time outside getting dirty. While their kids had television growing up, they never felt that had to even talk about restricting access. Their children watched cartoons on Saturday mornings and occasionally after school, but that was all. Their favorite cartoons were Mickey Mouse, Looney Tunes, especially Roadrunner and Wiley Coyote, and Tom and Jerry. While I grew up with these shows and others, I know that my brother (who is seven) and his friends are not. In fact, many may view these cartoons as unsuitable for children due to their violence and lack of a moral or educational theme.
 
While we were on the subject of offensive material, I asked if they remembered the quiz show scandals. They barely remember them, which they think is probably due to growing up on farms, where they were somewhat isolated from modern society. They agreed the deception would have been very shocking to America, but, like television in general, it did not affect their lives very much.
Now, Joanne and Vernon have a TV set in their home, but they still rarely use it. They enjoy news shows and the occasional entertaining program, but it is certainly not a centerpiece in their living room or in their lives.

Joanne and Vernon - Mass media experiences

Hey all,
this blog will serve to relay what I learn through interviewing Joanne and Vernon, a couple with whom I attend Rehoboth Baptist Church here in Kirksville. The project involves talking to someone (or multiple someones) born before 1940 - Joanne was born in 1935, as was Vernon, I believe. Our first meeting is this Saturday and I will ask them about their experiences with sound recording (probably vinyl records), radio, and possibly television if time allows. My maternal grandparents were born in 1929, but due to their hearing problems I felt long phone interviews could be unpleasant or impractical for them. However, since they spent the first 20 or so years of their marriage as missionaries in India, I would still like to get a brief idea of mass media in their life during that time, for comparison to Joanne and Vernon's life in the states.
Another post to come this weekend,
Elena