Wondering back to 1959 and a new product I bought

Wow, with a title that long I don’t need to write a blog. . . . OK, guess I better anyway. I read Hermit Jim’s blog about the Sony Walkman. Interesting, you may want to check it out at: http://hermitjim.blogspot.com/2011/07/ever-have-one-of-these.html. He always seems to come up with some interesting stuff. Anyway, it made me think about a new product I purchased back in 1959. First, let me give you a little background.


My Uncle and Aunt invited me to take a vacation with them in their Airstream travel trailer. One stop on the agenda was at Colorado Springs for a week to attend the Wally Byam Caravan Club rally held there that year. The people of Colorado Springs wanted to know how much of an impact the rally had on its economy, but were not sure how to do that. They came up with the unique idea of trading out our money for two dollar bills and we were only supposed to spend two dollar bills in their town. My parents (I was only 16 at the time) gave me $50.00 to take with me. Since I hadn’t spent anything since we left home in Pennsylvania, I traded all my money in and got 25 two dollar bills.

By the time I got home, I had most of them left. My parents told me I could buy something for my self with the money. So I bought this new gadget called the transistor radio. Back in those days, transistors were very expensive and only a small percentage of them worked when tested, which also helped in raising the cost of manufacturing them. I found a really good one for that time period, a nine transistor unit. It was not as small as the ones that followed in the 1960’s and 1970’s, but I thought that I was something special when I walked down a street listening to songs like the “Flying Purple People Eater”. So, it cost me almost $50.00 bucks, a whole whopping amount back in those days, but it made me so proud and being a teenager I loved to listen to the latest music.

Thanks Hermit, for bringing back some really great memories. You all have a good day now, you hear. And, if any of you haven’t already done so, go read Hermit Jim’s blog. He always has a great read.