Christmas Eve always used to be a magical night of the year. In some respects (in different respects), it still is.
When I was a child, Christmas Eve meant oysters for dinner (a Campbell family tradition apparently), and then a journey to my grandmother and grand aunt's house, where we had ice cream, cookies, and a gift exchange. As a kid, I always used to look forward to it for the presents, but it wasn't just that -- it was the lights, it was the Christmas tree (with the lights and all the ornaments), it was Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol that always played on the TV, it was the night time, the magic of wondering if Santa Claus would bring anything the next morning.
Of course, now all that is past. But as I reflect tonight -- after taking a long bike ride around the neighborhood and down the Trail, looking at the neighbors' Christmas lights and enjoying the night air -- I come home and switch on one of the coolest Christmas presents I ever got -- a Sanyo boombox.
My dad said he saw it for sale at a strip mall and bought it on impulse. I was sure glad he did.
Now, I had several radios already -- an old Penney's transistor multibander, another Montgomery Wards multiband radio that worked well also, and that popular SW standby, the DX-160. But this boombox was my first FM stereo radio. And it sounded good. Even the classical music station, KING-FM 98.1, sounded great!
The boombox opened up a whole new world of listening.
Before long I discovered the New Wave FM channel, KYYX 96.5, which had just hit the top of the ratings. I was aware of New Wave music, but had heard very little of it until tuning into it on the stereo boombox. I won't forget hearing the Fixx for the first time: those awesome chorused and echoed guitar chords! There were a lot of other bands that had minor hits that have been forgotten: The Burning Sensations' "Feel Like Jonah In The Belly Of The Whale" is an example.
I also listened to the pop stations and the local rock standby, KISW. The early 80's was a very good time for rock and pop and alternative music, and hearing it on a stereo boombox made it all that much better.
I left Mickey Mouse up just for the heck of it.
The Sanyo's radio always worked great. I broke the stock whip antenna, and bought a replacement at Radio Shack. I also turned up the stereo sensitivity function. But the 'box never played cassette tapes very well. The play button didn't work well. But as I usually listened to the radio, that wasn't that big a deal.One thing I got from the Sanyo was a new love for Medium Wave DXing (distance listening). One night I tuned to the AM band to see what was on and to my surprise the radio had a lot of pull -- very good selectivity and sensitivity. I began to tune around the band and heard a lot of stations I simply hadn't heard before. I also learned to 'null' stations on the boombox: where you turn the radio until Station A disappears, and then you hear another station in its place.
I did a lot of DXing with the Sanyo. With an external loop (a spiral loop I still have but don't use anymore) I heard Mexico, Colombia, and even Russia. I logged stations all over the West and a few east of the Mississippi.
I took the boombox with me in the car, as the car I was driving at the time was a hand-me down that had no radio. Here and there I'd find FM deadspots, where the local stations faded out, and sometimes the Canadian stations could be heard -- often in stereo. One Winter afternoon I had the boombox in the car and I was down at Alki, one of Seattle's two gravelly beaches -- it was one of those FM dead spots (the radio pros call them "terrain shadows"). The Canadian FM rock station was booming in and they played half of the new album by the Simple Minds. Awesome.
We had a touch of snow a week ago. Closest thing to a "White Christmas", which is exceedingly rare in Seattle.
One night I was visiting a friend for a couple hours and forgot to remove the boombox from the back seat of my car. Imagine my grief when I went back out to my car to see the back door partly open and my boombox was gone!It was like somebody ripped off a part of me.
Over the years I bought a couple other boomboxes to replace it. A GE that worked well, a Sanyo that didn't work so well, a used Sanyo boombox with AM, FM and SW... But I still wondered what happened to my original Sanyo.
I got a job working downtown Seattle, and one afternoon during lunch break I went into one of the several pawn shops on Pike Street. These were interesting affairs -- dusty, with a lot of used guitars, amps, radios, tools, guns, whatever.
Imagine my surprise when I saw what looked like my old boombox, sitting in a display window. Same model, same replacement whip antenna, same inability to play cassette tapes. At first glance it looked like a dead ringer for my stolen radio.
There were a couple scratches in the wrong place, however. So I'm sure it wasn't the one that got stolen -- but about as close a facsimile as you can get.
I bought it immediately.
Outdoor ornaments on a lit hawthorn tree.
It worked the same. Great AM section, very good FM section (I needed to boost the stereo sensitivity -- just as I did on my original Sanyo).Over the years I used it, and then had it in a storage closet for a while. A couple years ago I found it and pulled it out, dusted it off, and fired her up. She still worked.
Periodically I DX on it, and other times I'll listen to the local FM stations. And every time I switch her on I still remember when I first saw her double under the Christmas tree.
This Christmas morning I have had my Sanyo tuned to the FM classical station (KING 98.1) and CKOR out of Penticton, BC, Canada on 800 AM. They both are playing Christmas music. I'm drinking flavored tea, and in a while I am going to read Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol", which I read every Christmas season.
Candy Canes and Snowman Lights!
It's cold and somewhat foggy out, and this year more of my neighbors have lights and displays up. I put up the last of my display about five hours ago... a few Snowman Lights that I've had for several years which a friend gave to me because she couldn't use them. I also fixed the lit cross my father made when I was a child. The original light string is still on there in his memory, but I put twinkly lights on it and hung it out a window.I hope that all of you have a great Christmas, wherever you are.
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