Transistor Radio Reminds me...

[blastoff]

I remember reading Dick Tracy in the Sunday comics that came with the newspaper.

Dick had a radio strapped to his wrist that looked like a watch. He'd talk in to it or receive messages, from headquarters I guess. Imagine that, a tiny wireless communications device.

Ah, Chester Gould couldn't draw a scratch, but he had the neatest gadgets.

BTW, it wasn't a radio, it was a TV watch. We are sort of there, almost, with things like Skype and so on that can do two way telephony. but watch size is still not quite there.

And the space station was pretty cool too. Well, it was clunky looking, but everything Gould drew was clunky looking.

but do you remember the size of the comics? How much bigger everything was? And the artists didn't have resort to cheats because some newspapers crop off the top line on the sunday.

OTOH, most of what was out there was lame. Prince Valiant?! the amount of real estate that took up on sunday was criminal.

No way, Jose. It was definitely identified by Gould as a 2-way wrist radio.

 

[Bezukhov]

how far technology has progressed in my lifetime.

Today I found a pocket transistor radio at the flea market just like the one I had when I was a kid.

It's black plastic (cellulose I think) and boxy...about three by four by two with a stainless steel face.
It reminded me how amazed I was at the time to be able to carry battery powered music around with me everywhere I went. It was nothing short of a modern marvel...the beginning of a new age.

And today, thirty plus years later I have a Blackberry phone/mini-computer/mp3 player/GPS/calculator/Ebook reader/address book/Enewspaper/notebook/camera/camcorder/video player that I totally took for granted...until I was reminded how far we've come by a pocket transistor radio.

I received one of those radios for Christmas when I was 8 years old. It was a promotional model for some gas station chain, Phillips I believe, in the shape of a gas pump. It was one of the best gifts I ever opened. As a reminder of how far we have progressed over the years, right next to my computer is a vintage 1950's Grundig shortwave radio, which still works like a charm.