Crystal Memories

How rough is a rough draft? Here’s a tiny sample: “and the radio had to be attached to soemtiuhng metalk’ like a radiator to pull ins tations’ ” Typos galore, ’ happens a lot when I hit ’ aiming for return. This piece is intended for the Noir show – I want something new, nostalgic & a little bittersweet.

What you have here is a rough draft with merely the typos cleaned up. No polish, so there are unfinished thoughts and even continuity slips – things that’ll be dealt with in the next round of edits.

In the days after first part I did some research into crystal radios. It was there that I discovered two things – they were very popular when my Dad was a boy which opened the memory wider for me to recall that it was because he’d had one that he got one for me. I do think though, that some school pals of mine had them, and when I told him about them he had the idea to get one for me.

The second discovery was about the sound quality, which was my major disappointment with the set. The closer I was to the radiator the better it was but I felt at fault. I only I were smarter, a more perfect son, then my reception would better.

Next edits will pull it into the shape it wants me to take it.

Crystal Radio

the crystal radio

was yellow plastic

that much I can remember

even though it was a christmas gift

I moaned & longed for

because some other kid I knew had one

I was so excited to unwrap it

and couldn’t wait to plug it in

but was sort of disappointed

that it was a kit

something I had to put  together

which my dad & I managed to do

none of which I recall at all

the cover showed a happy boy

with headphones

tuning in something

on his crystal radio

which wasn’t made of crystal at all

the headphones were too big for me

and the radio had to be attached

to something metal

like a radiator to pull in stations

and the tuning dial didn’t glow

it was made of paper

the sound quality was crap

the channels it brought in

were all talk chatter

I lost interest in it the new year

though I did give it a go

a few more times the following year

then it got lost

my dad had one

when he was a boy

wanted to share his ten year old

with my ten year old

we put it together together

reading the instruction sheet

which made sense to him

but none to me

and once we had it done

we tied the wire to the big iron radiator

in my bedroom

this was my last Christmas as an only child

our first in the house we would

soon move from after my brother was born

and there was another on the way

it took the adult me

years to realize what my adult dad

was trying to share with the child me

then I was merely disappointed

in the crappy sound quality

always thinking it was my fault

for not putting it together better

I later find out that was the best

a crystal radio would ever sound

but because I was never

that happy boy on the box cover

I figured I was the disappointment

put aside

like a put the crystal radio aside

in favour of the new better brother