Radio Days: 1940's (poem) by Mark M Lichterman on AuthorsDen

Radio Days: 1940's
by Mark M Lichterman → (All Poetry by Mark M Lichterman)
Thursday, December 5, 2019 Rated "G" by the Author.

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Radio Days: An excerpt from “Becoming” Chapter 13 Pages 108 & 109 Entitled, “Shadows in The Mind.” Presented here as a/my free verse poetic narrative
Radio Days (1940s) Laying comfortably on the softly carpeted living room floor To be snug and warm On a cold winter day With your brother Or sister beneath Mommy and daddy’s fluffy Down filled blanket To smell the scent of Grandpa’s aftershave To feel his arms about you As you sit snugly on his lap To close your eyes To be carried away: “RETURN WITH US NOW TO THOSE THRILLING DAYS OF YESTERYEAR WHERE OUT OF THE DISTANCE COMES THE THUNDEROUS HOOF BEATS OF THE GREAT HORSE SILVER! THE LONE RANGER RIDES AGAIN!” With our imaginations wide open We could see them They were there There There’s The Lone Ranger and his great horse Silver There’s Tonto and Scout “HI-HO, SILVER, AWAY!” On Saturday mornings: “Cream of Wheat is so good to eat, yes we have it every day. We sing this song, it’ll make us strong, and it makes us shout hooray!” “Cream of Wheat presents ‘Let’s pretend’! Today the story of ‘The Princess and the Pea’!” “Grand Central Station! Crossroads of a thousand lives!” “Corless Archer America’s Junior Miss!” Raptly listening Imagining Being there Run home from school Go to the store for mom Take a package of Twinkies And a glass of milk and Sitting on the floor in front of the radio: “Jaaack Armstrong, the All American Boy!” “Captainnn Midniiight!” “The Green Hornet!” “Look, up in the sky!” “It’s a bird It’s a plane It’s Superman!” Eat supper Take the garbage to the can Rush through homework Back on the floor again because: “It’s time for Jack Benny!” “Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy!” “Fanny Brice as Baby Snooks!” “Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!” “Today, April twelfth, nineteen-hundred, forty-five our president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt died suddenly of a massive cerebral hemorrhage in Warm Springs, Georgia.” “God save America!” “Today, May eighth, nineteen hundred, forty-five Germany surrendered to the Allied Forces.” “The war in Europe is over!” “Today, August, fourteenth, nineteen hundred, forty-five Japan surrendered to the Allied Forces.” “WORLD WAR TWO IS OVER!” We and our radios were there ©October 25, 2013 / Mark M. Lichterman

Reviewed by Ronald Hull

Reviewed on December 7, 2019

Radio sure let your mind roam across the landscape that the show was--the Wild West of Hopalong Cassidy. Dad came home with a well used console radio that some rich man had lost during the depression. That radio had longwave and shortwave capability that enabled us to listen to other countries and even ham radio operators if we wanted. Like you, we plopped down on the rug and listened many a Saturday and evenings after supper. We kept it long after we had a TV, because boxing matches, like the famous Sonny Liston and Cassius Clay fight that got my dad really angry for picking "that loudmouth" Clay as the winner. He often listened to one and watched another baseball game both on the TV radio at the same time, something that I'm starting to do with the computer and television.

Although a spring chicken to you, I remember all those radio shows so well I can hear those lead ins to those shows so well, their catchphrases, even for commercials that still ring loud and clear in my mind. The one thing I don't remember where the famous historical announcements during and after World War II. Fortunately, when we got television, we got to see a lot of newsreel footage and many of those earlier epic boxing matches on Saturday afternoons.

Ron

Reviewed by Michael Schafer

Reviewed on December 6, 2019

Being a baby boomer, I grew up with tv, which holds just as many memories,like yours,for me, and a lot of the same shows. I can remember my grandmother telling me about the nights Joe Louis would fight, everyone was inside, and glued to their radios.

Reviewed by John Domino

Reviewed on December 5, 2019

Great memories of great people and good times. Well done, once again!