The old and the new

I'm afraid my dear old 43 year old transistor radio on the right has come to an end. Suddenly all I get is static and a wee bit of voice.

It's done me well since I was 8 years old. Gosh, it was a special birthday/Christmas present, bought duty free by Dad on one of his overseas trips for work. In those days you couldn't buy this sort of thing readily in NZ and if you did, the duty to pay was hefty.

The vinyl case it came in has long gone. Most of the splotchy effect on the chrome is from splatters from paintings I did while at school. I usually did my art home work with my radio on.

These days the equivalent would be an ipod or other mp3 player. I doubt if any of those will still work in 40 + years time.

I'm hoping it can be fixed but these days who knows how to fix them? Maybe it's just dusty dirty connections.

The sound from the old two DD size batteries was superior to the new wee two AA size battery radio on the left. But it works and I like to have the option of a small radio when I'm doing things around the house or outside. A battery powered radio was essential during the earthquakes when we lost power. I wouldn't be without one.

I'm a little wishful. But on the up side, yesterday I was in the car on my way home from buying the new radio, when I heard on the car radio how I could win a double pass to Leonard Cohen.

I wouldn't never have known otherwise and as you read yesterday I did indeed win tickets. Bonus :-)