The Way Back Machine

Before I became a child of the television age, I loved radio. As I have said before, I can remember when I was about three or four years old sitting in my high chair next to the icebox where the radio sat to listen to kids’ programs like "Let's Pretend," "Gene Autry’s Melody Ranch," and one which featured the song, “The Teddy Bear’s Picnic.” I can’t remember that the name of the show, but I loved that song. In the evening even at the tender age of three or four, my favorite shows were "Mr. Keene, Tracer of Lost Persons," "Mr. and Mrs. North," "The Shadow," and "Gang Busters." "Gunsmoke" was another favorite. My mom listened to her soaps during the day when she could, and my dad liked a few comedies, too.

A few years ago, I discovered a few sites on the Internet that had many of the old radio shows. It seemed that I had stepped back in time to a more innocent time. I listened to a few shows almost every day, but for some reason, I drifted away.

Over the holiday, when I couldn’t take another day long marathon of "A Christmas Story" or "It’s a Wonderful Life," I decided to return to “those wonderful days of yesteryear” for a little dose of nostalgia.

I was surprised to see that now you may download many of the shows. Most are in the MP3 format; others are in various other formats. When I told Mr. Fixit I needed to get some CD’s (I don’t have an MP3 player) to burn some shows to listen to them while in the car, he asked, “You aren’t going to be arrested or cause Interpol to come knocking at our door, are you?” I explained that the shows are now in the public domain and can be downloaded without fear of arrest and/or fines.

And now back to my time machine--the year is 1950 and Philip Marlowe awaits!