My father was 3rd or 4th oldest. He was born in 1905. My mother was born in 1917. Sam had 3 kids. A son and two daughters. The son was my mother’s age. Maybe a few years younger. His name was Gus. Gus was in the Army and he was a radio repairman. When he came home from the Army, he became a TV repairman. When I was about 12, I visited his TV repair shop. He had an Army surplus short wave radio. He tuned in Radio Moscow. I thought that was cool and it was what got me into electronics because my father got me one of these radios.
Here’s one:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/185083122954?hash=item2b17d0550a:g:K2EAAOSwsrlhV6ae&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAAwBQEwPBVKqFhQZj%2FB1GCD7XrDVV6PjZp2pd%2B0xcsBHSVOCmpYgQJV7HhbuVLOOs2h3rZoWcpG0435fSYP4%2B5RA%2BrM0fWYlOwV%2F9fsxuo47ZXY392cJ7pYmiCXQKKuukrwD5ltNnVyXJpaw0hso9KnViSD9Bs0vJABIvCGV%2FXCrq4NYPhC7Wca%2FhbCGJKnKaHB68gxqImqowzdRnq0hPUMeMT8Y6kLJf3FAfghigWFecjd0Jxdh%2FWNgor9ltZolBAZA%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR-CI8buNYw
I listened to local ham radio operators on my radio and one guy’s station blasted on my speaker like he was next door. Actually, he was about 3 miles away. I listened to him some and one day I heard him say he lived on XXXX Road. Which was a short bike ride from my house. His name was John XXXX. I found his parents’ phone number in the phone book and called him. He invited me to come to his house to see his Ham rig. We were the same age. There were three other guys in the neighborhood who were our age and John introduced me to all of them. They were the nerdiest guys you could ever imagine. John wasn’t as nerdy as the rest of them. These guys all built Heatkit Ham gear and other kits.
John had an older brother and he was in the Air Force, stationed in Germany. He sent John money to build a stereo system. John built a Heathkit amplifier. He got the speakers from Lafayette Radio. The woofers were 15 inches. They were monsters. The turntable was huge. John’s older brother’s room was the entire attic of his house and it had incredible acoustics. That’s where John set up the stereo system.
John eventually built a Heathkit reel-to-reel tape recorder. John was the one who recorded the Trio for me. The recording that became Flashback.
One of these:
https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vintage-heathkit-ad-22-reel-reel-169847619
One of the first stereo albums that John got was the cast recording of West Side Story.
Here it is…..
I think we listened to it a million times. (Slight exaggeration)
For a long time…. It was the coolest stereo album that John had.
What I liked most about the album was something I later learned was called “The Symphonic Dances."
I’ve never tired of this piece of music.
Here it is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUSPzL7lsY8&t=448s
I have John to thank for much of my appreciation of music.
We ALL have him to thank for Flashback
He died of cancer in 2003 at age 59.
We remained close friends throughout his life.
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