2011: THOSE RADIO DAYS OF MY YOUTH

We are entering into the time of year when my still remarkably

efficient memory brings back vivid mental vignettes of growing up during the 40's and 50's. As I probe my memory, I recall steamy kitchen windows on a crisp fall afternoon as Mom Glover tends to a pot of chicken soup with a delightful aroma steaming temptingly though the kitchen. Next to that steaming delight is a skillet with 6 slices of Case's Pork Roll ready to be sandwiched in a Bond Bread hamburger roll. Out in the "dining room" (where we seldom dined) young Tommy Glover has just finished his homework and takes his "secret place" under the spindly legs of the Glover family's console radio, getting ready to listen to another nightly episode of the daring exploits of his radio hero, "Hop Harrigan, America's Ace of the Airways." Memories are indeed made of this!

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Tom, these Hop Flying Club wings are available on e-bay for $29.95, 1940 vintage in brass. Quite handsome. The coffee table with a blanket became my shelter where Sgt. Preston and I weathered the blizzard. Then it was out under the forsythia where the lawn bench was flipped and a wide plank was drawn across it. Sky King and I would then search the mesa in the Cessna Bamboo Bomber, the trusty Songbird for Penny and the rustlers. The steam, the smell of the woolen mitts drying over the heat "grate" and sometimes just the right "cast of light" will bring the memories back.

Ed Millerick

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

MY CLASSMATE LEE BELARDINO WROTE:

Tommy:

Hop Harrigan to control tower"Coming in for a landing,"Control tower to Hop Harrigan" "All clear". One of the reasons I joined the Air force.Hop and Steve Canyon. Followed by CAPAAAATAIN MIDNIGHT.ALL AMERICAN. I lost my ring. Followed at night by Suspens, Inner sanctum, Murder at midnight. Who needed T.V.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

AHH, KINDRED SPIRITS! Those old radio programs played a major part in our character development. STEVE CANYON! I FORGOT ALL ABOUT HIM. HE WAS ONE OF MY FAVORITE MILTON CANIFF COMIC CHARACTERS.

TOM