Your earliest memory

[kb0yup]

What is your earliest memory and how young were you? Age 1, 2, 3, 4?

I remember playing on the floor with my cousin. We had all the pots and pans out on the floor, banging them. My mom came in to quiet us down. I was about 2 1/2 years old. I have memories about the same time of my dad's big Zenith cabinet radio. Sometimes he would listen to WIND in Chicago, and sometimes he liked to listen to the shortwave radio. The dial on the Zenith used to fascinate me because it would split and change to the shortwave (thinking back, it reminds me of a camera aperature.)

And your earliest memory?

[w4rot]

I was 5 or 6.
I was major pissed cause the JFK funeral replaced cartoons on Saturday.
I am sorry. I should have grasped the world better.
But I did not.
I was a child.
w4rot

[W5MJL]

My earliest memories were from age 4. My father accidently cut off two of his fingers with a circular saw. I remember almost everything that has ever happened from that point forward.

[N4AUD]

I remember moving from a rental house to one my parents bought at age two.

[W2ILP]

I can remember being rocked in my baby carriage. I remember that the sun was too bright in my eyes and my mother shaded me from the sun. I also remember the smell of my milk bottle.

Now some folks don't think I could remember that and that people can't remeber that far back. Some can't believe that I can forget how to spell words now as opften as I do.

I did however remember that I talked early even before I walked, well before I was two years old.
My Mom told me I had everyone laughing when they would ask me how old I was and I would say, "I'll be two in You-lie". (My birthday was in July.)

I'm now 72 years old. I haven't stopped talking yet.
Enuf sed.

w2ilp (Initial Little Pram)

[KG6YTZ]

I have vague memories of having my diaper changed, being bathed in the kitchen sink, and sharing a crib with my baby brother, just over a year younger than me. [A year and 25 days, actually, and we're both screamin' downhill toward 40 now.] I remember bits and pieces of the occasional childhood dream. I remember being in kindergarten. Proust had his tea leaves; I have my crayons - who doesn't have fond memories of the distinctive aroma of a box of Crayolas? - and paste and construction paper. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[ad5qb]

Earliest memory that I can put a date to is seeing the JFK funeral coverage on TV at my grandparent's house, I would have been 4 years old.

[K8ERV]

At 4-1/2 I actually realized that I might want to remember that time, and I clearly do. The world has not been the same since. (Not saying if that is good or bad----).

TOM K8ERV #Montrose Colo

[KG6YTZ]

I remember mom, dad, and grandpa watching something moon-related on the TV - possibly a landing in about '67 or '68.

[kd7eze]

I remember back to the age of about 2½ or 3. My mom had made one of her famous chocolate pies. After the evening meal, my dad had retired to the living room to read the paper and smoke his pipe. My mom was cleaning up the kitchen, and had gone to take the trash out. I seized the opportunity, locked mom out of the screen door, got the remaining pie off the counter, sat down on the floor and proceeded to gorge myself with chocolate. Mom called to my dad, who came and let her in, and I got a stern butt blistering. I never did this sort of thing ever again, but the pie was good at the time. To this day, we still reminisce (sp.) about this and get a good laugh. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[w1adk]

I remember sleeping in a crib and my older brother bringing me Harlem Globetrotter stickers he got out of a box of Cocoa Puffs.

[al2i]

My earliest memory is of getting bit by the family dog. Not a dachshund, but probably with some dachshund blood.

73,
Dave/al2i

[ai4ep]

I was born in 1958 and when I was 2 I was backed over by Mom in the car in the driveway ( hit by back bumper and entire car went over me without hitting any thing else on my body. ) The car was a 1965 chevrolet Impala, with four in the floor and dual exhausts...I remember seeing those dual exhausts going over my head as the car back out of the drive way...the car was a 1965 Impala, I was born in 1958 and I was 2 years old when this occurred.

then you folks wonder why I am as I am ... !!

[k4kyv]

I recall V-J day. I was 3 at the time. All I can actually remember is being with my family, at night, in town, where there were a lot of people milling about. Later they explained to me that when the announcement came that the war was over, everyone went to town and gathered on the streets to celebrate.

[WA5KRP]

Fascinating replies. I never thought about it much. My parents moved from the country to the city on my 5th birthday (12/28/54) and that serves as a major before-and-after timeline point.

While in the country I remember having a flashlight that stayed with me like a shadow. I LOVED walking in the yard at night and using it to see all the night critters - and there were lotsuvem. As summer approached, we had zillions of fire flies come out at dusk.

When I was 4 I remember bouncing around in a DC-3 flying from Miami to Havana, Cuba. I still can see the sun setting in the west as we approached the island while an enormous thunderhead to the southeast continuously flickered with lightning. While there, my parents took me with them to the Copa Cubana where we dined outside and watched a floor show.

I remember having to stay with babysitters when my parents went out at night. I hated that.

Roy Rogers and Tex Ritter were on TV every day. I loved watching Laurel 'n Hardy and the Three Stooges in the afternoon. Disneyland was a BIG DEAL every Sunday evening.

I had a Radio Flyer wagon that went with me everywhere I played.

I remember seeing TWA Constellations at the San Antonio International Airport. I got a huge thrill watching the four engines get lit up and seeing those beautiful birds taxi and take off.

Amazing what's still in our memories if we just take the time to reflect.


WA5KRP
Texas

[KA9VQF]

I remember finding a kitten when I couldn’t have been more than 2. It was a sickly thing, my mom and I washed it and tried to feed it. It survived but it truly hated me. Every time I came near it, it would arch its back and hiss at me. It would stalk me throught the house and attack my ankles or whatever else was handy for it to attack. So it had to go.

Somewhere around here is a picture of it on the back of the davenport all arched up and hissing and me just sitting there watching TV.

[W2LYS]

I recall watching a TV show, news probably, and it showed a train that was carrying John F Kennedy's body somewhere... I couldn't have been more than 2 at the time...

[WA5KRP]

Quote[/b] (W2LYS @ June 20 2005,13:04)]I recall watching a TV show, news probably, and it showed a train that was carrying John F Kennedy's body somewhere... I couldn't have been more than 2 at the time...
JFK's body was flown from Dallas to Washington. There wasn't a funeral train. RFK's body was moved by a funeral train in 1968 and Eisenhower's body was moved to Abilene, KS by train in 1969. But you would have been more than 2 years old.

Lincoln's is considered the mother of all Presidential funeral trains. You weren't 2 years old then, either.

I'm guessing you saw some sort of documentary.



WA5KRP
Texas

[KC0QOR]

I recall balling my eyes out in the movie theatre when my folks took me to see "Raiders of the Lost Ark" in 1981. I was three or four at the time and all those snakes scared the crap out of me.

[W2LYS]

Quote[/b] ]I'm guessing you saw some sort of documentary.


I wonder what it was then... if it was RFK or Eisenhower I'd think I would remember it with a little more clarity... I do recall it being when I was quite young.

I have quite distinct memories of the Moon landing & the NY Mets taking the series in 69...

[KW4MW]

I remember going hunting with my Dad, that was before he met my Mom. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/laugh.gif

[kl7aj]

At about the age of three, we lived right next to the Southern Pacific railroad tracks in Atherton, California. I remember seeing the last of the old steam engines go by...very elaborately painted, by the way. By about 1959, they were all gone. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif Also remember HO electric trains we always had around the house from about that age.

Eric

[ai4ep]

guess no one figured out the " numbers " in my story yet...oh well.

[n2nh]

I remember seeing Wrestling and Roller Derby on a TV set. I also remember that the TV was broke most of the time. According to my parents, from that and a description of the Apartment, I was about 1 at the time.

[W5HTW]

I used to remember a lot, I think. Now I don't remember what I remembered, or even where.

Geeze you guys are young. I learned about the Kennedy assasination by a QSO on 40 CW, no kidding. (Check my web site for the full story.)

I recall hearing a portion of a radio broadcast from Europe in WW-II and then the announcer said the bombs were falling and then the station went off the air. I didn't know what that meant, but my Mother told me it was war.

I remember the Civil Defense wardens walking down the street, blowing whistles, and telling everyone to pull their blackout shades, which was so German bombers couldn't see the lights of our city. And military vehicles with the little 'blackout lights' one could barely see, as they patrolled the dark streets.

I remember standing beside the railroad track when a passenger train went by. It was carrying soldiers to California so they could attack. Whoops, no, so they could be shipped to the war in the Far East. One of them leaned out and tossed me a police whistle, and I kept it until I was in my twenties. No idea what happened to it. That man probably died in the Pacific war. I also got a cinder in my eye at the same time, so my Mother picked up the whistle for me, as I was cursing a blue streak. Or maybe I was crying.

I remember seeing my first television. I was perhaps 11. That would have been 1951. The only thing on was a ball game. It was incredibly boring, as in those days after each pitch, everybody in the entire baseball enterprise paused to have a conference, and the next pitch might be five minutes later. Eventually they made rules about 'delay of game' and sped things up dramatically. It was mostly a lot of people standing around in a field, almost no action.

I remember seeing my neighbor's 'windmill tower' and the weird lights from his back room, and the big thing on top of the tower. I asked what it was and another boy, older than I, told me it was ham radio. Good enough for me. I had an answer and I had no further interest. I was eight.

I remember visiting a distant relative, who lived in a wooded valley. I have no idea why we went there. He had a wire stretched across the valley, from the barn to a distant tree. He took me to the attic of the barn and showed me his ham radio station. It was just some black boxes and a lot of wires. I chose to go for a walk in the woods. I was 11 or 12.

Ed

[kb0yup]

Quote[/b] (ai4ep @ June 19 2005,16:01)]guess no one figured out the " numbers " in my story yet...oh well.
I noticed, but I thought maybe it was a typo. That's still an amazing memory no matter what, getting run over by a car.

[kb0yup]

Alot of these posts are really jogging my memory. For instance, my grade school still had the blackout curtains hanging in the classrooms. Only we used them when we were shown a movie or a film strip.

I remember watching Little Rascals after I got home from school. I remember being on lunch recess in 7th grade when JFK was assassinated and some of the kids had been watching TV in the library. When they came outside and told us, I didn't believe it, and told them not to make up such stories. I even remember what I was wearing, a blue pleated skirt and a white blouse with a Peter Pan collar, and I had my Camp Tocanya sweatshirt from Girl Scout camp because it was chilly.

I remember those steam engines. The Nickel Plate Railroad used to stop downtown. Even their whistles had a different note to them.

Lots of people can remember so far back, almost to infancy. The one person was talking a blue streak at 1 1/2--how appropriate for a ham operator in a message board such as Rag Chew.

[W2ILP]

I wish that I could forget some of my early memories. My family was evicted from an apartment they were renting in 1937, because they could not pay the rent. My father was too
prowd to apply for welfare. I remember it well because my mother sold my tricycle for fifty cents as the marshalls put our furniture out on the sidewalk. My mother finally got my Aunt to help us move into an apartment building where she lived that was nearby. My Aunt had to pledge that she would be responsible to see that my father paid the rent. Stuff like that leaves a mark for a long time...It didn't make me be a Commie or even a Liberal...but it did give me an understanding of why people might have considered being Pinkos during the "Great Depression" of the 1930s. My Dad always hated the Commies.

My dad was a typical American cabbie (who never owned his own taxi cab). He was a good guy in spite of not knowing how to hustle to make a decent living. He knew all about baseball, football and horse races....as much as any sports fan could know. I guess I can be prowd about that.

Memories shouldn't be made of this stuff.
Enuf sed.

w2ilp (Its Long Past)

[KW4MW]

Well so much for those happy trips down memory lane.

[kb0yup]

ILP, I wish you had happier earlier memories. It was the times, and that had to be hard to see your belongings on the street and have your tricycle sold, and at such a young age that understanding the reason was hard. I hope that as you got older, the memories got better..

[KF0RT]

Quote[/b] (W2ILP @ June 20 2005,18:19)]I wish that I could forget some of my early memories. My family was evicted from an apartment they were renting in 1937, because they could not pay the rent. My father was too
prowd to apply for welfare. I remember it well because my mother sold my tricycle for fifty cents as the marshalls put our furniture out on the sidewalk. My mother finally got my Aunt to help us move into an apartment building where she lived that was nearby. My Aunt had to pledge that she would be responsible to see that my father paid the rent. Stuff like that leaves a mark for a long time...It didn't make me be a Commie or even a Liberal...but it did give me an understanding of why people might have considered being Pinkos during the "Great Depression" of the 1930s. My Dad always hated the Commies.

My dad was a typical American cabbie (who never owned his own taxi cab). He was a good guy in spite of not knowing how to hustle to make a decent living. He knew all about baseball, football and horse races....as much as any sports fan could know. I guess I can be prowd about that.

Memories shouldn't be made of this stuff.
Enuf sed.

w2ilp (Its Long Past)
I wonder if this is why it's so hard to get my own Dad to part with his memories. He was born in 1926 and doesn't have a lot to say about the "old days." I'm learning gradually, and have yet to find any "shame" in any of it. It was what it was.

For you really old farts... Tell your stories to your kids. I guarantee it's an education they missed in school.

73, Rob

[KG4YUV]

I remember my 1st birthday. I looked down and I saw the flowerdy design on the plate that the cake was in. No one believes me about it, but when I go back and watch the video, it's that same flowerdy design!!

[KG4CGC]

My first moment of conscinenceness, awareness, was being held in my mothers arms as a very small child. Maybe I was being fed or just being held but it was like I just woke up. Later I remember talking like a person making full coherent sentences even though I think I just thought I was. Then there was remembering dreams so real that sometimes I would open my eyes and I would still be dreaming. Early moments of discovery and awareness never leave you. Acute observations came next.

[W2ILP]

kb0yup

Thanks for your post.
Yep...My memories got better when I built radios and became an SWL and even better when I met hams who encouraged me to be a ham. #That is why ham radio means a lot to me. #It was a big part of my own education and my oportunity to work as a self taught technician and later as an engineer....and provide for myself and my family and buy my own home etc. #I dunno if I could have done it if ham radio did not get me started. #Maybe that is why ham radio means more to me than it may mean to others. # I know that ham radio means different things to different people and some think of it as just a fun hobby. #I know that I can't change the opinions about the hobby for others who have not used radio to get out of isolated poverty and as an educational initiative. # I know that today computers are serving the same way that amateur radio did before there were home computers. #The whole world gets opened up to an insignificant youngster by such hobbies. #He or she can learn a lot just by talking to other hams or other computer users that can not be always learned from teachers or parents and he or she can have a feeling of self accomplishment. #When a kid communicates he is treated like an adult more so then when he is spoken to by his family. #That is why ham licenses were always available to young people regardless of age if they could pass the ham tests.

My memories of my first crystal set and my first three tube radio (both of which I assembled myself) will always be with me... as well as my first ham QSOs. #They were my best happy memories.

Enuf sed.

w2ilp (Ignoring Lamented Poverty)

[KA1UNW]

It was certainly #before I was 4, since I distinctly remember my 4th birthday.

In Bridgeport Ct..I remember seeing a steam shovel trying to move on it's treads, as if trying to turn, and I could see that he'd never do that with the wheels in the treads.... not knowing he'd 'skid-steer'.
Same city... my mother and I visited her friend and her kids...rainy day... had to play indoors...saw a toy out side that we wanted but could not get it ( The MUD MONSTER would get us!!).
Another day:
Same friend...mother and I sat on the steps to their place...one of the kids could not come out to play...apparently for some grave reason
( Mud monster got him? )
Those 3 above, in that sequence...
This was maybe earlier:
My mother and I were leaving Grants Dept. store and someone opened the door which clobbered me...the man said he was sorry;did not see me ( so I knew language by then ). ..but my mother scolded him just the same.
Still before I was 4, I remember trying to find 'the little man who sat inside the radio tube and read the newspaper out loud' ( so sez my Uncle ) , breaking the tube and only finding the wire ladder he used to get away , and nicking my finger on the glass.

THAT I should add is what sparked ( oh! please forgive the pun ) my interest in 'radio'

[kb0yup]

LOL the little man inside the radio--I used to wonder about that too.

And I remember the feeling of accomplishment when my doorbell buzzer circuit worked! I never built a crystal set, guess I still could. They ARE still available, right? So much has gone away. Another MAJOR feeling of accomplishment was passing the morse code to get my General. Whew!

[KA9VQF]

Quote[/b] (kb0yup @ June 20 2005,20:57)]{edited quote}

#I never built a crystal set, guess I still could. #They ARE still available, right?
A few years back I undertook a mission for one of my wife’s friends. She was helping out with a pack of cub/boy scouts and they wanted each of the boys to build a crystal set radio for their merit badges.

Since I was already licensed for ham radio they naturally asked my wife if I could help. She naturally said I would be more than happy to help them out.

At first I was reluctant to even try knowing that proper headphones could not be obtained in quantity for each of the radios. I went to the nearby town of Galena Illinois hoping to find some actual galenite crystals to use as detectors. I may as well have gone to my own basement and mined for gold.

I decided on using a diode for detector and wound up building the headsets, by hand, in my basement. You might not believe how many diodes I went through to find enough to build 10 or so radios. I also tested each of the headphones on a circuit that I had constructed to make sure it would work.

The place my wife worked at the time, uses a lot of enamel magnet wire and they donated a partial roll of #35 wire to the cause. It was more than enough to build the condensers and give each of the boys enough wire to use as an antenna. I collected several large cardboard rolls from the center of stretch wrap plastic that we used to wrap finished skids for shipping to use for the condensers. I cut up several feet of PVC water pipe and drilled holes in each end for them to use as insulators to hang their antenna with.

It was a real learning experience for me. Don’t know what the boys got out of it. I seriously doubt that any of them even have their radios anymore. None of them seemed to express any satisfaction from building the radios. Many of them were real disappointed that the only radio station they could hear was a station out of Clinton Iowa. It was the closest AM broadcast station around.

With my own rig at home with plenty of the magnet wire in the trees I was able to hear lots of stations at night. For a later project I had them build little transistor amplifiers so the crystal set could be heard from a cheap 2” speaker.

Again none of the boys seemed interested in really doing it and didn’t seem to have any satisfaction from the project.

[WA5KRP]

Quote[/b] (KA1UNW @ June 20 2005,22:48)]Still before I was 4, I remember trying to find 'the little man who sat inside the radio tube and read the newspaper out loud' ( so sez my Uncle ) , breaking the tube and only finding the wire ladder he used to get away , and nicking my finger on the glass.
http://instagiber.net/smiliesdotcom/contrib/blackeye/lol.gif #What a GREAT post. #I had soooooo forgotten that early day urban myth. #Around the age of 5 in 1955 I remember we had a Zenith TV with a little light (smaller than the diameter of a cigarette) at the bottom of the console directly below the TV screen. #I asked dad what the light was for. #I certainly don't remember the exchange we had, but basically dad told me the little man living in the TV kept that light on so he could read the newspaper.

"There's a man living in the TV set, dad?"

"Sure there is. #He's a little guy that got kicked out of the house by his wife so he came here."

"Oh, OK."



WA5KRP
Texas

[KG6YTZ]

You folks might be interested in a web site called "I Used To Believe" at www.iusedtobelieve.com. #Basically, the whole topic of the site is the things people used to believe when they were very young.

For instance, when my siblings and I were little kids, our parents would occasionally leave us in the care of a babysitter [grandpa, a family friend, a neighbor, etc.] while they took weekend trips to Las Vegas with their bowling leagues. #When we asked them where Las Vegas was, they told us it was in Nevada. #Well, it just so happened that just one block east of where we lived was a street named... Nevada. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif #We used to wander up and down that street looking for Las Vegas and our parents.

[W0UZR]

I was on the potty chair one time, and I thought,
" I don't need this pee guard, that's for babies. I can make sure my thing is pointed down in there like everyone else." So I ripped it off.
Well, maybe not in those exact words, but I also remember not long after that I wasn't going to go in that potty chair anymore and managed to get on the toilet seat (WithoutFallingIn!!) and I thought, " I'm All Grown UP NOW"
How old was I? Between a year to a year and a half, because my mom said that I was toilet trained right as soon as I started walking.

And even earlier, I remember getting powdered after getting changed, and wishing I didn't have to have that powder. It just rubbed me the wrong way.
How old was I??
How am I supposed to know!! I don't remember anyone telling me how old I was.

[k0ews]

One of the most vivid of my early memories, age 4, was going with my family out to the "beach" early one morning. There were a lot of people around, all with radios, binoculars, etc. I didn't know what was going on, but knew there was a big thing everyone was looking at.
Turns out, it was the launch of Apollo 11, and I was within sight of it. Pretty cool.

[W0UZR]

Quote[/b] (W2ILP @ June 20 2005,02:01)]My Mom told me I had everyone laughing when they would ask me how old I was and I would say, "I'll be two in You-lie". (My birthday was in July.)
Was there a microphone in front of your mouth?

[KA7RRA]

I remember when I was a three me and my dad where at the lake watching this boat being launched and a woman in the back, the boat filled up with water,and overturned on her.. my dad had to go and help.

I remember duck hunting with my grandfather and going up and down the river all day long looking for ducks then we drove down the road to a puddle about a fourth of a mile and thats where they where

[KW4MW]

KF0RT Posted: June 20 2005,20:06
Quote[/b] ]For you really old farts... #Tell your stories to your kids. #I guarantee it's an education they missed in school.
Good idea Rob. #I was one of the youngest granchildren and I really missed out on a lot of what my grandparents had to say about the old times because by the time I was old enough to be interested they had passed on. #

For that reason I have been writing a journal for my three grand-kids. #Nothing fancy, if I recall a particular incident I will write it down and maybe paste in a picture or two if I have them. #So far I have included stories concerning the 3 room school house that I attended for the first 8 years, the belt driven wheat thresher I saw that was powered by a steam engine tractor, steam locomotives, life without TV or microwave ovens, and yes, even what it is like to have to go to the outhouse in the middle of a cold, nearly zero degrees, snow covered #January night. #(Usually after my brother had peed on the seat and it was frozen), #

I intend to print copies for each G-kid and maybe burn them a CD (hopefully CD-Rom won't be obsolete in 20 years). #Hopefully some of you will do the same. #What may seem to have been a mundane experience for you might be an exciting recollection for others in a few years.

I remember the good times and try to forget the bad times. #Recalling the bad times will only leave you bitter. #For that reason, I won't mention too much of the bad times to the G-kids unless it has some family historical significence.

ILP, I didn't mean to be so flip earlier. #You had some rough times but most of us have also had our share so my advice holds. #Shove those bad times to the back of your memory banks and focus on the good memories in your life.

Life is always a polarity. If there were no darkness there would be no light. If there were no trouble there could never be any peace. If the sun always shone you would not appreciate it. You have to learn sometimes through conditions that seem a nuisance. One day you will look back and say, "We learned our best lessons not when the sun was shining, but when the storm was at its greatest, when the thunder roared, the lightning flashed, the clouds obscured the sun and all seemed dark and hopeless". It is only when the soul is in adversity that some of its greatest possibilities can be realised. # - #Silver Birch

The only thing that sticks out is when I was 4 and playing with a hammer and threw it at a car that was driving. Oh the funnyness of that.

[W2ILP]

When I was about five years old I asked my mother where she got me. (In other words I was asking.."Where do babies come from?").

My mother did not hesitate a moment. She said that she bought me in Macy's Department Store. That sounded logical to me at the time because I had seen that they sell all kinds of stuff in Macy'S. Believe it or not that explanation held until I was eight years old and a friend explained the real facts of life to me.

w2ilp (Infant's Layette Purchasing)

[K9STH]

I really don't know because of things that my parents told me that I did when I was very young. As such, what they "told me" and "what I actually remember" are definitely "clouded".

Now, I definitely remember when I was 3 years old and my great grandfather died. My mother and I were waiting for a bus and were sitting on the seat that surrounded the county courthouse. An ambulance pulled up in front of a building across the street. It happened to be the place where my great grandfather had a small apartment. My mother took me across the street to see what was the matter.

My great grandfather died while we were there. The only thing that I remember clearly was that there was a "dog leg" in the stairs and as the ambulance attendants were taking his body down the stairs the sheet slipped from over his face. I will never forget that he had a "full" head of snow white hair.

Glen, K9STH

[WB2WIK]

All my life people have always said I look ten years younger. When I was 10, I looked like a fetus.

My earliest memory is pre-birth, I think. I remember it being dark, warm, wet. Or maybe that was me at age six, after bedwetting with the blanket pulled over my head.

http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

[kb0yup]

It's not an early memory, but it's a funny memory. I was staying at a friend's house. They had running water, but only when the wind was blowing and the windmill was turning the pump. After several days of calm winds or only light breezes, we were using the outhouse instead of flushing. It was a warm summer night and I headed outside for the outhouse. I opened the door to the outhouse and in the glow of moonlight, I noticed two bright eyes shining back at me. I slammed the door and hightailed it back to the house, pretty scared. City kid that I am, I got some of my friends to go back with me and see what it was. They laughed at me for being afraid of a raccoon.

[KW4MW]

First TV - a floor model, 17" RCA Victor B&W

Dad brought the TV home on a Wednesday and told us to leave it alone because the guy that sold it to us was coming up on Sunday to show us how it worked (On/off volume, Channel selector 2 - 13, horiz and vert hold, contrast).

TV guy (Paul) and his family came up Sunday. #He brought a channel 7 (yes they had dedicated antennas then) for Wheeling which was about 100 mi to the NW.

Although we lived in a valley, Paul had only brought 100 feet of 300 ohm ribbon. #We fastened the antenna to a piece of galvanized pipe and stuck it into the ground and connected the other end to the TV.

The results were absolutely remarkable. Of the twelve channels, we were receiving solid B&W pictures on nine of them from stations as far away as 200 mi.

We of course were absolutely delighted and spent the rest of the evening enjoying our fine TV reception.

The next morning Mom turned on the TV and all we got was snow except for a shadowy picture on Ch 7. Later that week we ran about 400' of wire to the top of a hill and we were able to receive usually one and maybe sometimes as many as 3 TV stations on an S2 - S9 basis, depending on conditions.

In retrospect, knowing now what I didn't know or comprehend back then, that was the year that all the A-bomb tests were being done and I imagine that the ionosphere was pretty well charged up. #

Also that was the year, and only year in my memory that I observed aurora borealis at that latitude #(38N)

[KW4MW]

First time I heard ham radio:

Do you remember those old tube type, AC/DC radios? #The ones with the filaments in series so that the total voltage drop added up to 110V. #35W4's, 50L6, etc. #

If you will recall, the antenna was a wire loop glued to the cardboard(?) back of the radio. #There were two metal through type rivet fasteners, one at each end of the loop where the wires from the radio were mated to the loop. #

Everyone knew that if you attached an external wire to one of the fasteners that reception would generally improve. #My favorite rock n roll station was WLS 890 AM with Dick Bionde(sp?).

One night I got the wild idea of hooking a loop of wire to both of the rivets in order to get better reception. #Unknown to me I was the fact that I was actually wiring an inductor in parallel with the loop antenna which also served as the inductor in the tank circuit and so I effectively changed the operating range of the receiver. #

This was during the time when SSB had not caught on among hams and every body used AM. #The first thing I heard was the time signal from Canada's CHU and as I turned the dial I hear guys talking and realized that this was those "hams" that I had heard about. #
I was hooked.

I still listened to WLS but divided my time between rock n roll and ham radio.

End result, licensed in 1960.

[W0UZR]

You did that TOO!

All the kids in town thought that I was an electrical genius.
All I would do it hook a long wire spliced in the middle of the loop windings (thereWasAcoilLoopOf6or7turns) and I would get WWV, BBC London, Radio USA, and a host of others. I would listen at night and hear all kinds of different languages.
I would take the wire off, and it would be back to AM broadcast stations only. I was thinking,

"I bet no one else discovered this on how I can improve an antenna so I can get stations real far away!!"

I thought that I would make that my secret so I would be the only one that can get AM broadcast way across the ocean, then I can tell others what is going on in other news that no one else would be able to find out.
Of course later on, I realized that I was receiving short wave on another band.

[KA1UNW]

Two topics now! oh my!

All of you have jogged my memory:

This is still before I was 4..... I can remember my great grandfather ( and great grandmother who had to take care of him) the one time he was out of bed, while his bed was being remade (he was bed-ridden at this point )... and the time my Great grandmother stuck toilet paper into the empty light socket on the ceiling so that the electricity would not leak out.
I also remember everyone leaving in the car to go to his funeral, while my uncle baby sat.
I consider my self lucky: I got all his notes that he made concerning his radio'ing ( some of that was before tubes and Ham licenses were available).

I heard my 1st ham on a crystal radio that I had improperly adjusted the coil-slider on ( I was like 9-11yr old). He lived down the street. He was W1DXV.

Once, in trying to replace the loop coil on a 5 tube superhet, I put on a horizontal hold coil (TV 16-42 mhy) and ran the tap to my antenna (random wire; end fed).
This did not work to get the 540-1600kc band, so I tried an experiment with the tuning capacitor to extend the tuning range / avoid mis-tuning that coil.
The high inductance coil ran 'self-tuned' now.

ooH! results!...But wait!

The stations I heard I could not get on my shortwave radio (1.6-30mc)...? #? #? # big mystery until I realized that I was receiving BELOW the 455kc IF. It #was due to having also joined the oscillator tune cap and RF tune cap together.... the oscillator now could tune down to 550kc, and so I was receiving to as low as 95kc.
Heard Loran (100kc noise), WGU20 (?) on 173kc and the various Aero Beacons.

[kb0yup]

When I was little we lived with my grandma, and she had the TV. Remember the Indian on the test pattern? I liked to look at the test pattern (go figure) and one day, instead of our test pattern, there was one from Texas (I lived in NW Indiana "Da Region" Chicago suburb). I liked to check and see from where I could see test patterns, and I made a list in a little notebook. I also liked to stay up late enough to hear TV (and radio) sign off for the night. I liked to tune my AM radio all around and try to get stations from far away. Just a ham waiting to happen.

You guys who had ham relatives and neighbors, I'm jealous. I missed alot growing up without them!

[KA1UNW]

The antenna I was using for long wave started out to be 75 ft long, but I kept adding to it, running it out across a swamp, using dead-wood for poles ... oh 10-12ft high... I guess I made a Beverage ant. Well it became almost 1000 ft long after several years.
I had a TV set where I was able to access the tuner's input, which was not 300 ohm balanced, but was not 75 ohms either.The input 'balun' was not the simple 2-coil type, so I have no idea what the Z was. It was an all tube TV, so I could get away with this next step:
I connected this huge antenna to the input via a small value trimmer capacitor and was able to do DX TV, towards the south.
When the local stations signed off, I could see other stations before they signed off....with odd qsb'ing of course.( this was summer...ducting I'll bet )
Got WTOP on ch 13, after the PBS channel in Newark NJ signed off. Channels 6 ,10 & 12...normally not used in my area, had -= layers =- of stations on top of each other.
Saw all kinds of test patterns. Ch2 ( New York) had the Indian.

[K7KBN]

I seem to be able to remember my first Christmas. I was born in March, so I would have been all of 9 months old.

Shocked the heck out of my folks when I was about ten years old. We were going through a bunch of old pictures and happened across a picture of me on that day. I recalled enough details of what I had received, and the fact that I had been sick for a few days before Christmas, to convince them that I had what appeared to be a valid memory.

[kb0yup]

That's right, summer, so it probably was ducting. That must have been why I remember having so much time to fool around with TV. DX TV, that was pretty clever. I have dabbled in Amateur TV now, but the thing I do most with it is try to receive ATV from high-altitude balloons.

[KG6JTB]

I remember reaching up and burning my hand on my grandmothers stove in East Germany in 1974 at the age of 3. I was visiting with my mom.

Dave
KG6JTB

[KW4MW]

I remember:
# # #Steam locomotives that chugged by my grandparents house.
# # #Having a tricycle that was made from the casing of an artillery shell
# # #Climbing the 'big' sliding board and using a wax paper bread wrapper to sit on and increase my speed.
# # #The mudhole at the bottom of the slide after it rained
# # #Milk came in bottles and was placed on the doorstep every morning
# # #Eggs were delivered once a week and the egg man and my grandmother would catch up on their gossip.
# # #The "Golden Tea" man delivered every two weeks and he sold coffee, tea and a few other things, junk mainly
# # #My brother and I said that the "Golden Tea" man looked like Lee Marvin from 'M' Squad
# # #The bread man delivered weekly and he also brought the birthday cakes
# # #Cold water kept in the refrigerator, usually in a glass milk bottle
# # #When 45 RPM records replaced the old 78's
# # #Brass needles for phonographs that were good for 10 records
# # #Hi-Fi was state of the art, audio wise
# # #Beer and soda came in cans that had to be opened with a church key
# # #Church keys
# # #White tee shirts, faded blue jeans and penny loafers with white socks were cool.
# # #Radios received only AM
# # #TV's received channels 2 - 13 only
# # #Hilltop or rooftop#TV antennas
# # #Car radios with vibrator power supplies
# # #Sock Hops
# # #Police cars with a single red bubble light and a whip antenna
# # #Playing high school football without helmet faceguards and wearing high top shoes with steel tipped nylon cleats.
# # #Getting 75 cents an hour for putting up hay was good money
# # #Making good money putting up hay and Mom made me use it to buy school clothes.
# # #Selling Cloverine Brand salve
# # #Weeding the garden by hand, an endless job
# # #Helping Mom can veggies from the garden
# # #Buying baby chicks by mail order
# # #The penny post card
# # #Party lines
# # #Slopping the hogs and feeding the chickens
# # #Helping my cousin pick up bulk milk from the farmers and delivering it to the Carnation plant.
# # #Weinie and marshmallow roasts
# # #Swimming in the farm pond
# # #Drive in movies
# # #County fairs that weren't commercially overdone
# # #Fishing for Blue Gills using a stick, kite string and a safety pin and worms or grasshoppers for bait.
# # #Baseball cards and the gum that was hard enough to cut the roof of your mouth if you weren't careful
# # #Baseball cards in bicycle spokes
# # #Fleer bubble gum with a cartoon strip #(Who was that character?)
# # #Apples in bushel baskets with colored paper strips
# # #Colored paper strips in bicycle spokes.
# # #My brother telling me that it was against the law to kill a preying (praying) mantis
# # #Listening to Dragnet on radio before it became a TV show.
# # #Ed Sullivan and Steve Allen
# # #Martin and Lewis
# # #George and Gracie
# # #Jack Benny . . #and Rochester
# # #Clear channel AM stations, WLS, WOWO, WABC, KDKA, etc.
# # #Putting pennies on the railroad tracks
# # #Blue Laws
# # #Buying cigarettes for my folks when I was 8 y/o

[K3UD]

My earliest memories start at about age 2 1/2. #I very clearly remember my mother going to the hospital to deliver my brother in late 1953 and I remember my father staying at home to take care of me. I also remember that he purchased a blue model airplane glider which has a metal skeleton and silk covered wings. I also remember the trip to the hospital to see my brother.

My most vivid memory of that time period came when I was 3 years old. Hurricane Hazel came up the coast and we got a lot of effects from it. The house across the alley from us had thier electrical service damaged which started a fire. This was about very early in the morning and it was still dark. From my room I had a direct view of the fire and was watching it start to spread. Then I heard the fire trucks pull up and watched as they put it out. The fire trucks work up my parents.

My first radio memories probably came when I was almost 4 years old. Some of the old radio seriels were still being broadcast and I remember listening to Johhny Dollar on my parents clock radio in their bedroom. Musth have been about 1955 or so. When I think back, it is amazing how much freedom I had to roam the neighborhood when I was 4 an 5 years old. When I started Kindergarten I was allowed to walk 4 city blocks to the school. #Times have certainly changed.

73
George
K3UD