Radio-Related Mid-Life Crisis, Guest Bredenz
April 7, 2010 by admin
Filed under living with me
It’s just a radio.
It’s a radio won at a casino-themed dinner held by an employer I worked for so long ago, it seems like someone else’s lifetime. I can’t recall whether I actually did anything to earn it; there’s a good chance that it was a door prize. I’ve never been much of a gambler.
Specifically, it’s an Aiwa CS-N15U, and the serial number sticker on the back claims that it was built in 1988. Knowing this particular employer, it most likely sat in an ocean container in a warehouse in Newark for about three years after that, until it was claimed from a prize table by a much younger me somewhere around 1991. And this radio has graced a variety of my domiciles throughout Wisconsin in these nearly twenty years since.
For the past seven of those nearly twenty years, with very little deviation, my morning routine has been the same: Grab coffee, walk downstairs, flip the switch on this little radio, turn on the shower, and allow myself to be reborn. Celebrate that I’ve cheated death, and actuarial science, for yet another day.
This radio has been my trusted companion through, in no particular order: Three jobs, more failed relationships than I wish to admit, eleven years of marriage, seven years of fatherhood, a car crash that should have killed me, two Green Bay Packer trips to the Super Bowl, resulting in one Lombardi Trophy, Opening Days at both County Stadium and Miller Park, a forest fire, raking leaves, re-siding my grandparents’ home before their death, burying my grandparents, planting trees (not related to forest fire) watering said trees, fishing, splitting wood, caulking and staining a log cabin, many garage cleanings, more washed windows than I can remember, many things I wish I could forget, windy fall afternoons throwing a Frisbee with my daughter, and countless peaceful summer evenings spent sitting by a fire-pit with a beer in my hand. (Which, for the record, is how I started the forest fire.)
“Good times, bad times, you know I’ve had my share.” Yes, those words have emerged from this radio many times, also.
This radio has been witness to remarkable personal diversity. As my politics have leaned left and right through the years, this radio was surprisingly consistent, and never once judged the content, nor placement of the dial. These speakers have known everything from NPR to Art Bell.
I listened to Brewer games on this radio with my grandfather, who passed away in 2001, and when I hear Bob Uecker’s voice through the speakers of this radio, I still picture my grandfather sitting next to me.
It was from the speakers of this radio that John Jagler informed me that a plane had struck the first of the Twin Towers on the morning of 9/11. Every time I hear his voice, it reminds me of how that morning changed us. Sadly, perhaps, not enough.
It’s almost staggering to admit that this simple piece of consumer electronics predates my first home computer purchase by nearly three years. Processors have gotten faster, hard drives have gotten bigger. This silly little radio has never known the difference.
About once a year, I notice that my friend’s little red “operation” LED is going so dim it can barely be seen, and the voices emerging from its speakers are becoming garbled. So, as a ritual, I put four fresh ‘D’ cells in the battery compartment, and my friend is given the gift of new life. It’s fitting, then, that in these days just following the Christian holiday of Easter, this morning, my friend was longing for resurrection.
Today, something inside of me is different. This modest radio still works just fine; though, admittedly, much like its owner, it is showing some signs of wear. So, I am left wondering whether there’s something better out there. Experiencing a bit of a “radio-related mid-life crisis,” I guess. I’ve made the decision: The time has come to retire my longtime companion. Nineteen years spent with the same miniature boombox is, quite frankly, enough.
Going radio shopping this afternoon. Have no idea what to expect.
Bredenz can be read at Badger Blogger.
Follow @Bredenz on Twitter.
Good story. I have a TV that was given to me by my grandparents when I graduated from 8th grade in 1994. I still watch that TV every night in my bedroom as I fall asleep. When that TV dies, I will lose a part of me. It’s a “thing”, but it represents the love I had for my grandparents…people may not understand your story, but I do.
Great piece hope you come back and write more!