Re: [IRCA] Nice Visit

[The Kaskey Family <kaskeyfamily@xxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks Steve, what a fun article.  Enjoyed it very much.

don



Stephen Hawkins wrote:

> Don,
>
> On Friday 11 November 2005 15:28, The Kaskey Family wrote:
> > Hi (ex) neighbor!
> >
> > We were out by the Cliff House & Lands End....Parking Lot (very dark) just
> > up the Great Highway from the Cliff House.  Overlooks the former Sutro
> > Baths, then out over the Pacific..........
>
> Great spot.  I know right where that is.
> Below is a short piece I wrote some time ago when my son was younger, about my
> Grandfather Dxing, and my son Dxing.
> ----------------------
>
> When my father was a little boy, his father, a career Army Sergeant, was
> stationed at the Presidio in San Francisco California.  My Father lived there
> from 1922, when he was two, until he was about 13 years old.  The Presidio is
> a beautiful place and my father grew up playing in a world filled with tall
> trees, abandoned bunkers, old cannons, and marching soldiers.
>
>         In the late 1920's early 30's although the radio explosion was already
> moving, it was still pretty exotic stuff.  There weren't as many stations as
> there are today and most people still put up outside antennas.  An evenings
> listening was an expedition into new and uncharted territory.  Many radios
> made at that time would receive short-wave bands in addition to the local AM
> broadcast band that we use today.  My Grandfather and one of his peers were
> among the first people on the Presidio to purchase radios.
>
> My Grandfather, as had several others who owned radios, climbed up some of the
> very tall trees and strung up as much wire as he could, to use as an antenna
> for his radio.  Radio was new enough that my grandfather and his peers found
> it very exciting to hear broadcasts from foreign countries.  My Father tells
> of his fathers excitement one foggy morning.  Elatedly relating his nightâ??s
> adventures by exclaiming, â??I got China, I got China, on my radioâ??.
>
>         My 10-year-old son is an inveterate junk collector.  It is difficult for him
> to pass a dumpster without looking in to see what valuable treasure some dolt
> might have carelessly thrown away.  Consequently he has this gargantuan
> hoard, which must be periodically culled lest it swallow us like some immense
> floating biblical plague.
>
>         Occasionally this heaving, surging mass will expel some piece of real worth.
> I came home from work late one Friday night and on the back porch I nearly
> stumbled over what at first appeared to be a fairly new and expensive
> Boombox, one of the rare ones that in addition to the usual AM/FM CASSETE,
> would also receive  short-wave.  Upon closer inspection I could see that it
> had been dropped.  Hard!  And that this adventure had not been pleasant.  The
> entire back which contained the power supply had broken off, severing all of
> the wiring connecting the two halves.
>
>         My sons complete confidence in my ability to bring it back to life found me
> sitting at my bench late that night working on it, until suddenly the dial
> lights glowed and out of the speaker came the sounds of foreign broadcasts on
> the short-wave bands.  This captivated my son, who for the next several days
> spent hours hunched in front of the radio carefully turning the tuning dial
> with the intensity and concentration produced by small boys in pursuit of a
> dream.  These periods of quiet were interrupted frequently by him leaping up,
> and running down the hall to my radio room yelling,  "I got China!  I got
> China on my radio!"
> --------------------------------------------
>
> Steve
> --
> 73 49 111 01001001
> Stephen Hawkins NG0G
> ng0g@xxxxxxxx
>
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