|
Rob Dempster
'Allo 'Allo Gardens! (AAG) Howick (uMngeni) Die Draadloos 9 August 2026 |
|
|
|
|
Best viewed on a big (desktop PC) screen Click on an image thumbnail below to pop-up an enlargement!!! |
My first recollection of the 'Draadloos' was when I was four or five years old. My parents bought a radio/record player that was mounted in a rather large (for the purpose of containment) cabinet. It The (valve) radio, record turn table, and speaker where in the central part of the cabinet. That central part was flanked on both sides by display cabinets that had curved door frames containing curved glass. These cabinets containing my Grandmother's Tea and Coffee services and several Delft ornaments.
When the Transistor Radio arrived on the scene there was no longer a need for the radio and record player. I removed the radio and record player and in doing so, replaced them with shelves. The record player es scrapped. The radio found a new home in a cabinet that I constructed for it, and it went into my garage. The radio had an Amplitude Modulated (AM) channel and several Short Wave (SW) channels.
While we were living in Hayfields in Pietermaritzburg the radio dissapeared, and with its departure, the Music in My Garage Died. (Apologies to Don McLean who wrote and sang, 'The Day the Music Died')
However that has now changed, I once again do have a radio in my garage. Edith recently scrapped the Clock/Radio that we have had in our bedroom, and it is now in my garage. It can be seen in the two photographs included below.
There was another radio, my Dad's first Transistor Radio. It was enclosed in a plastic box and was as large as a size ten shoe box. The radio was still working when the plastic box had reached it' lifespan. So I rescued the Printed Circuit Board that contained the electronics and mounted switches and dials, and attached it to a suitable wooden board.
When I returned to Grey College for my Standard Nine yea in Leith House, it accompanied me. It was suitably installed on my Prep Table which was below a window that afforded a view of Murray House some 100 yards away. To improve the reception of the Shortwave Band and the Sunday evening Lorenzo Marques Hit Parade, I installed an aerial that ran from the window to a Gum Tree on the side of Murray House.
One evening when we were preparing for the Mid-Year Examinations, it start to SNOW in Bloemfontein. Prep was abandoned and the next morning when I looked out of the window, the world was white. A foot (12 inches /39 centimeters) of snow had fallen. Bloemfontein was at a stand-still.
... and it had coated my radio&alos;s aerial until the coating was too heavy. At that point it fell off the Aral wire and landed in the snow below producing a perfectly straight line in the snow below from below my window to the Gum Tree. A site I will never forget. The rest of the day was bedlam with one of the teachers arriving on a horse.
There is another radio that I should mention. As a boy I was given a book that contained stories and projects. One of the projects was, 'Construct a Crystal Set.'. I still had the book when my son Bruce was born, and when he went to Pre-School. By I thought I should tackle the Crystal Set. I did and it worked. It also caught Bruce's eye and he dragged it around until my own transistor radio's plastic box resembled that of my Father's radio. So it to ended up with its Printed Circuit Board being mounted on a suitable piece of wood.
Bruce immediately abandoned the Crystal Set in favour of the Printed Circuit Board mounted on a board. It became his constant companion for a while and even accompanied him to Pre School.
Have to stop now, I have left my phone in the kitchen!
OOPS!!! I have also just been reminded that it is Cheryl's BIRTHDAY!!! today.
The next morning: I Googled 'Vintage Cabinet Radios' and was flabbergast to see the Cabinet (and Radio/Record Player) that my folks had. You will find two photographs of the Cabinet below the Garage Clock/Radio photographs.
 20260809_154341.jpg
|
 20260809_154445.jpg
|
 PYE00.jpg
|
 PYE01.jpg
|
If you have any comments, corrections, suggestions or plain criticism,
I would appreciate it if you would communicate the same to me.
|
[email protected] | |
| Allo Allo (Protea) Gardens |
|
|