The Old Days

The Old Days was Originally Posted on August 19, 2004 by lavarock

The other day I heard a man mention the name “Jerry Lewis”. His son said, “Oh, the Telethon guy?”. Seems his son only knew Jerry from his latter TV days of fighting disease. All the son may know of Dean Martin is that he got roasted on the TV commercial.

It used to be that kids would gather around the radio to listen to radio plays. Then television came along and kids would plop in front of the glowing screen, mesmerized by the sights. Then it was the computer and the handheld computer game.

Many old timers remember radio shows, and luckily, many of those shows are now archived on tape and CD for us to enjoy again.

I guess it takes a special kind of person to sit without a remote control or keyboard in our hands and concentrate on anything for any length of time. It IS a fun thing if you can get the hang of it though.

Some shows started out on radio (perhaps with an audience) and moved onto TV or the big screen. These names would be familiar to many older people, names such as Lucile Ball, Our Miss Brooks, Dragnet, Burns and Allen, Superman and Amos and Andy.

“War of the Worlds” was a radio broadcast that scared America while decades later, Paul Harvey would inform us with the “Rest of the Story”. There were musical shows and mysteries, and lots of science fiction.

Many of the movie rental stores have audio sections and perhaps there is a rental that might interest you. You might find them for sale online (like Ebay). Look for “OTR” or “Old Time Radio” or “radio shows”. Occasionally there is a radio station, which plays the old time shows. Perhaps you have cassettes or recordings of your own. Why not bring them out and listen, or perhaps, share them?