
It’s Saturday Morning and the “old radio” is on. It’s made to look like it’s from 1934, but it has a tape deck. I don’t believe it’s an actual antique.
Don’t tell my oldest that. He’s proud that his radio is older than his Abuelita. It was a yard sale “splurge” a while a go. A little overly priced, but the seller threw in a free M&M dispenser playing a saxophone — geez thanks.
Look, some people are just born “old souls” and right now my oldest fits in that category. You can blame it on the pandemic lockdown, but he has picked up some weird hobbies. It’s possible he would have pick up these hobbies regardless of the inability to travel or go to the gym.
He started rock collecting. And somehow found his was to the periodic table, which lead him to metals, which lead him to silver and gold. “Hey, we have some of Grandpa Green’s old coins” somehow turned into having a book to hold said coins. Not all coins are valuable but all coins have value. They also have different dates and designs. We now own a jeweler’s loop to look at the intricacies of each coin. Hey mom do you see this penny it has XYZ because its from year whatever and this penny has ABC because it’s from this other decade.
Good thing I have perfected my “smile, nod and look interested” after years hearing his father rattle statistics about baseball players.
So back to the radio. “Hey who turned out the radio?”
“I did” he said.
“It’s nice, it gives the house more of a weekend feel to it.” And it does. After more than a year of living at work I have tried hard to delineate when the work week ends and when the weekend begins. Saturday: a day when I do not have to juggle 4 schedules and 3 meals. Not have to be on this meeting/class/zoom/call at precisely X o’clock. And I usually outsource meals to whatever fast food chain is within a 10 minute drive.
My son then makes a profound statement “The radio is nice because you never know what song they are going to play next. It’s a surprise, but they also have news.” I think the act of not knowing in a world of “on-demand song/movie/tv playing” is an interesting characteristic for a 7 year old to consider. I also appreciate his thoughtfulness in creating a win-win scenario by plugging in the fact they do little news breaks and traffic/weather alerts on top of the hour. Poor kid was stuck with NPR until he had the vocabulary and sense to ask for music instead of KJZZ. They have the “All Things Considered” tune memorized by heart. (I wonder if it will trigger some sort of odd memory in their adult future.)
Yes the radio is nice. PSA — there is still terrestrial radio broadcasting for FREE available for the masses. Donated to your local NPR station ….
Now back to to this Chamillionaire song…
Don’t tell my oldest that. He’s proud that his radio is older than his Abuelita. It was a yard sale “splurge” a while a go. A little overly priced, but the seller threw in a free M&M dispenser playing a saxophone — geez thanks.
Look, some people are just born “old souls” and right now my oldest fits in that category. You can blame it on the pandemic lockdown, but he has picked up some weird hobbies. It’s possible he would have pick up these hobbies regardless of the inability to travel or go to the gym.
He started rock collecting. And somehow found his was to the periodic table, which lead him to metals, which lead him to silver and gold. “Hey, we have some of Grandpa Green’s old coins” somehow turned into having a book to hold said coins. Not all coins are valuable but all coins have value. They also have different dates and designs. We now own a jeweler’s loop to look at the intricacies of each coin. Hey mom do you see this penny it has XYZ because its from year whatever and this penny has ABC because it’s from this other decade.
Good thing I have perfected my “smile, nod and look interested” after years hearing his father rattle statistics about baseball players.
So back to the radio. “Hey who turned out the radio?”
“I did” he said.
“It’s nice, it gives the house more of a weekend feel to it.” And it does. After more than a year of living at work I have tried hard to delineate when the work week ends and when the weekend begins. Saturday: a day when I do not have to juggle 4 schedules and 3 meals. Not have to be on this meeting/class/zoom/call at precisely X o’clock. And I usually outsource meals to whatever fast food chain is within a 10 minute drive.
My son then makes a profound statement “The radio is nice because you never know what song they are going to play next. It’s a surprise, but they also have news.” I think the act of not knowing in a world of “on-demand song/movie/tv playing” is an interesting characteristic for a 7 year old to consider. I also appreciate his thoughtfulness in creating a win-win scenario by plugging in the fact they do little news breaks and traffic/weather alerts on top of the hour. Poor kid was stuck with NPR until he had the vocabulary and sense to ask for music instead of KJZZ. They have the “All Things Considered” tune memorized by heart. (I wonder if it will trigger some sort of odd memory in their adult future.)
Yes the radio is nice. PSA — there is still terrestrial radio broadcasting for FREE available for the masses. Donated to your local NPR station ….
Now back to to this Chamillionaire song…