By Bill Venrick

Believe it or not, when I was a kid we would sit, as a family, and enjoy listening to the radio while eating popcorn or playing cards. There were special programs, they called them “soaps” [that term has stuck to this day] because their sponsors were usually soap manufacturers like Proctor & Gamble in Cincinnati, and whatever other sponsors like the makers of Oxydol, Fels Naptha or Duz (remember “Duz does everything”?) and so forth. Programs like "Stella Dallas" and "Ma Perkins" were usually afternoon or morning shows the housewives could follow while their husbands were at work.

Other shows, which you could call family shows, like “Fibber McGee & Molly”, or “Lux Radio Theater” and “One Man’s Family” were scheduled at the evening hours and that is when the whole family would gather in one room, some huddled around the radio while another group might be at a card table playing cards and all tossing down a lot of pop corn. You might have listened to “Mr. District Attorney” or “The Green Hornet” or “Gunsmoke” or “The Shadow”. There is an organization today that specializes in bringing back all those early radio memories, and you can even buy some of those old programs. Nostalgia is great and it’s only a click of a mouse away today.

Further back, 77 years ago there was a radio personality named Anthony Wons. I imagine he was somewhat like a radio personality I used to enjoy while traveling to Columbus, Ohio from Lancaster, Ohio every morning. Irwin Johnson, aka The Early Worm, had a morning program that made the 30-mile trip seem like just a few minutes instead of half an hour. He personally knew many of the recording personalities of the records he played. He would often save an especially long piece so he could play it in the middle of the half-hour time so his listeners would be able to enjoy that kind of music without any interruption of commercial breaks. I remember one recording by Harry Belafonte and Odetta did a number called, “There’s a hole in the bucket [Dear Liza]” – it was a hoot! [it was more than 3 minutes long!] Another regular the Early Worm would play was music by The Buffalo Bills, (no, not the football team) a men’s barbershop harmony quartet; and their records were usually more than 3 minutes too.
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The time of day was an important part of each time he introduced the music – no need to glance at your watch because The Early Worm would tell you every few minutes what time it was. Today’s radio is a bit different, at least in our area; some like to claim, “It’s all music…” but something’s missing when you don’t hear the time of the day regularly. In my commuting days one radio personality would “take you to work” and an entirely different personality would “take you home” at the end of your work day.

Here are a few bits and pieces Tony’s Scrap Book back in 1930:

“I expect to pass through this life but once. If, therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.” Stephen Grellet

“I love the man that can smile in trouble. That can gather strength from distress and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.” Thomas Paine

LIFE IS LARGELY WHAT WE MAKE IT – by John Dale Kempster

Life surely is a seesaw thing;
We never know just what it’ll bring.
Sometimes it lifts us “high in air”
Where skies are blue, and all is fair;
Sometimes it “bumps” us down to earth
Mid gloomy days of little worth;
But never mind how dark the clouds
Nor blue the thoughts that come in crowds,
We know somewhere the sun is shining
And every cloud hath silver lining;
So lift your head, throw out your chest,
Put on a smile and do your best,
Stand firm in will, there’s naught can break it,
For after all, Life’s what we make it.

If your memories can take you back to years before 8-track tapes, cassette tapes, or CD’s or Ipods existed, maybe you can hear the cued music become louder and your favorite radio personality might say, “See you tomorrow…this is Tony Wons saying good night for now…”

Some of the above was taken from Tony’s Scrap Book printed over 70 years ago and published by The Reilly & Lee Co. of Chicago.

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Get a nostalgic kick by clicking on these urls for Harry Belafonte & Odetta [this is a VIDEO] and some news about the Buffalo Bills Quartet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5o6Ej5sirg

http://www.singers.com/barbershop/buffalobills.html
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THE WORDWRIGHT