HAPPY DAYS

When I was about 12 years old, I became fascinated with listening to the radio after I was supposed to be asleep. After Mama tucked me in, (yes, she still did that at my “advanced” age), I would get my little radio, slip it under the covers and turn it on. Since the Beeville radio station, KIBL, went off the air early, I would search for just anything and I found KVOO Tulsa, which announced its station like this. “KKKKKVVVVOOOO,  the voice in the rain barrel” That’s where I found the Louisiana Hayride and the Grand Ol’ Opry It was great fun for me and I learned a lot of old country songs.

            There was another station I listened to at that time also. It was XEG , Del Rio. Actually it was broadcast from Mexico, but they probably knew that if they said they were in Mexico, no one would listen. Anyway, they had some unique items to sell. For example, for only $1.00 you could buy an autographed photo of Jesus Christ or if you needed it you could get a guaranteed flea killer. I had a friend who bought one, also a buck, and received two pieces of wood with instructions to place flea in between and smash! If you think about it, there’s really no arguing that it is effective, provided you can get the flea to stay still long enough.

            Sometimes I was able to get a station which I think was from Monterrey, Mexico. Don’t know the call letters, but they had a program which called out the daily winning lottery numbers. Since I was trying to learn Spanish, I would turn it on and listen as they rapidly called out the numbers. I learned that the program was held in an auditorium with crowds of eager lottery ticket buyers present. There were some boys who would be given the number and they would rapidly yell them out to the crowd because evidently there was no microphone sound system to reach that many. I remember it sounded like they were in a cave: “mil novecientos cuarenta cuatro or whatever number the winning ticket was. It was almost musical because they had a sing-song quality to their voices. That’s how I learned numbers in Spanish.

Since I am on the subject of radio, I am going to tell you about the aforementioned Beeville station, KIBL. I may have already written about this, but it is worth repeating. (at least I think so)

            When we were in High School there wasn’t much for us teenagers to do. No TV, computers, or anything else was provided for our entertainment. Well, except for the Youth Center, but I think I did tell you about that. It wasn’t all that exciting.  I got my driver’s license when I was 14, and when I was about 15 or 16 my parents let me take our Studebaker Land Cruiser out in the evening. I was able to drive my friends around to see what we could do, or , get into would be a better way of saying it..  Of course, we had the radio on and during that time, you could call the station and request that a song be dedicated to someone. For example, Bobby could call and ask the D.J. to play a romantic song like, The Very Thought of You for Betty or Jane could call and ask a “break-up” song like After You’ve Gone for Bill. The name would be called out and we all would giggle and think it was most entertaining. 

            The driving around got a little dull sometimes because Beeville wasn’t very big so it didn’t take long to cover all the right part of town. There was a section on the West side that we didn’t go into. Woooooo! So, we devised a game whereby we would pick out a car to follow and just follow it to wherever it was going. One night the car we were following turned around and came up real close behind us. We got scared and I drove up into the driveway of a big house owned by one of the local doctors. The other car passed on by. I felt so smart.

            You probably don’t know, but the Studebaker Land Cruiser had four doors and the rear doors opened front to back. Well one time, Rosemary was in the back and we were chasing another car when she mistakenly grabbed the door handle to hang on, and the door flew open and back!  That scared us too because she could have fallen out or the door could have come off because I was going pretty fast. I’ve always liked to drive fast.

            I must add here that I was the only one of my friends who had a driver’s license or access to an automobile. Maybe I was really a spoiled only child.

            It just seems to me that my teenage years where a lot less complicated than they are now.