Chicago,  Illinois

1945

Radio: The age of imagination.

 How wonderful to lie comfortably on the softly carpeted floor.

To be snug and warm on a cold winter day with your brother or sister beneath mommy and daddy’s sweet smelling blanket.

To smell grandpa’s aftershave and feel his arms about you as you sat on his lap.

To close your eyes and 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!”

“Lux Radio Theater presents, ‘The Dawn Patrol’!”

“Mom, I saw that movie! Can I stay up an’ listen? Please?”

“No! There’s school tomorrow and it’s past your bedtime!”

“Aw, gee, Mom. I’ll get washed’n’brush my teeth’n’get into bed soon’s it’s over! Please!”

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 sit 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.