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| A teenage Barbara Fish reading in bed |
What brings Christmases past to mind so vividly? For some it's the memory of a special Christmas gift.
My mother wrote this is January of 2024:
"Another memory: the small square stand by my bed, made in the late 1930s by my Dad as a Christmas gift for sister Pat and me.
"We had modified four-poster twin beds and Dad copied the turning pattern of the bed posts to match for the table legs. He included a drawer and a shelf so it was very serviceable and – icing on the cake – also included was a small radio that brought in many shortwave stations.
"One of our favorites was WQXR out of New York City that played many classical music programs - symphonies, opera etc. as well as soap operas and mystery shows. A wonderful Christmas that year!
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| Barbara and sister Pat. The nightstand is seen on the right. |
"Not sure where those beds ended up - I think they got a good home - but I kept the nightstand and now it's with me at Cole Manor, bringing back good memories."
Mom had written this piece in a notebook she kept in the pocket of her recliner. The pictures I came across in an old photo album - the kind with heavy black construction paper pages, the memories secured with little maroon corners.
2 comments:
I am delighted to see that bed and the nightstand. During the war, Mom told me, she and Pat would snuggle up with me between them on that bed and listen to horror shows on the radio. I of course retain no memory of that, but thanks to the internet and an old time radio collector friend, have been able to listen to some of them. "Tales from the Crypt" and "Inner Sanctum" stand out as full of black humor. This might have been formative for my tastes later in lift and my imaginings of what powers radio could have. Boy, is that bed small and intimate! Thank you so much for this.
I just wrote a reply so maybe this just repeats it. I was thrilled to see the images of the bed and nightstand. Mom told me that during the war, she and Pat would snuggle up on that bed with infant me in the middle and listen to the radio. She said they were very fond of horror shows such as "Tales from the the Crypt" and "Inner Sanctum." Maybe this helped form my later notions of what it was possible to make happen on the radio, for better or worse.
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