Carol told me that her family had owned their first radio in the early 1950s. From what Carol had told me, it seems that she and her family had an overall positive experience with this invention as well, along with the record player. "We enjoyed the radio! My sister, Doris, and I would spend hours dancing to the music that played from the radio", exclaimed Carol, when telling me about her first experiences with the radio. While listening to this, I started to compare my first experiences with the radio to my grandmother's. I was amazed at how our reactions were quite similar, in the sense that we danced to the music that came on through the radio! We may be years apart, but radio still has some of the same influence, even today.
The radio was positioned in the living room, near the kitchen of their home. Carol told me that mostly music and news were played from the radio. She told me that her mom enjoyed listening to the radio while cleaning or cooking. Her father mainly listened to the radio for the news. But Carol and her siblings enjoyed listening to the different shows that came on. She said she remembered their favorite show to listen to was The Goon Show. I did some research on this particular show, so I could know more about it and even listened to a few of their shows. I was surprised to see that it was actually a British comedy show. Personally, I didn't really think the show was that funny, but it was interesting knowing what kind of shows grabbed my grandma's attention when she was young.
I had Mrs. Carol describe the radio the best she could, so I could have an idea of how their radio looked back in the past. This was the best picture that I could find that kind of resembled the details she gave me. The radio was a lot bigger than the first radio that I saw. I knew radios were a lot bigger back then, but it still shocks me today that they started off being this size!
To wrap up our talk, I asked Carol about her radio usage today. She admits that she no longer uses the radio anymore, and that the only time she listens to the radio is when she's in a car. I was surprised to hear this because it seemed to me that she had such a good experience with the radio. But then I remembered that other future technology took the place of the radio, such as the television. I asked Carol why she doesn't use the radio to this day. She responded by saying that she didn't care for today's music that they played on the radio, and that over the years she lost interest in it. I could relate to the fact of losing interest in the use of the radio, because I, too, only listen to the radio in my car. Though the radio's Golden Age is long gone, the radio will always be a part of cultures around the world!
