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Kitchen Radio

Back in the 50s it seemed – much to my childish angst –  my parents were the last on our Bronx block to get a television set.   But of course we always had the radio.

My dad was a self-taught classical pianist and we had what was then a state-of-the-art hifi system and radio in the living room.   That radio was always set to WQXR,  the New York classical music station that simulcast the Metropolitan Opera production every Saturday – and still does.

My folks had a clock-radio in their bedroom,  and my sister and I each had one in our attic bedrooms.   And I remember taking a transistor radio,  and later a cassette player and a bunch of cassettes with me to the beach..

And back then,   before the advent of cell phones and social media,  and 24/7 news cycles,   folks kept well-informed nevertheless.   We had both a morning and an evening newspaper delivered,  and of course we listened to the news on the radio.   And for my family that radio was often the Emerson that sat on our kitchen counter.   Although we ate in the dining room on holidays and when we had company,   when it was just the four of us we ate dinner at the kitchen table.

My dad was a GP whose medical office was in our house,  and several nights a week he had evening hours from 6:30 to 8:00.  (See The Puppy in the Waiting Room)

Because of his schedule we’d eat an early 6:00 dinner,  and during dinner the radio would be on so that from 6:00 to 6:15 we could listen to the news with Lowell Thomas.

Thomas,  as you may remember,  was a World War I correspondent,  journalist,  prolific author,  memoirist and travel writer,  and the radio broadcaster who brought T. E. Lawrence,   known as Lawrence of Arabia,  to the public eye.

And always fascinated by the movies,  Thomas narrated 20th Century Fox’ Movietone newsreels,   and using the new Cinerama format he filmed and produced several documentaries.   In 1976 Gerald Ford awarded him the Presidential Metal of Freedom,   and in 1989 he was inducted posthumously into the National Radio Hall of Fame.

But as a child I knew Lowell Thomas simply as the familiar voice we heard every night.   And although I knew he was speaking from a radio studio,  and to a wide listening audience,  it seemed to me that he and my family had an intimate relationship.   When his voice came over that Emerson radio in our kitchen,  and he’d say,  “Good evening everybody”,  I felt he was speaking just to us.

 

– Dana Susan Lehrman

At his mid-afternoon press briefing on Wednesday, February 17, Governor Baker announced that anyone over the age of 65 would be eligible for vaccination the next day. The roll-out had gone badly so far, with only health care workers, first responders and those over the age of 75 being eligible to receive vaccinations and many of those had difficulty navigating the sign-up website. Most other states allowed many other groups, including all senior citizens and pressure was intense to extend the vaccine to this age group. The announcement caught everyone off-guard, but mostly the poorly designed web portal for making appointments.

Dan and I decided on a strategy. We would get on a bit before 8am, when new appointments open up, only look at mass vaccinations sites; those at Gillette Stadium or Fenway Park, and keep trying, hoping for success.

8am came and the system spectacularly crashed. The new appointments weren’t even loaded in for about two hours. We tried and tried to no avail. The software had been developed by some third party in some other state and was not prepared for the one million new people eligible who began logging in on February 18. It took us about 6 hours, but through persistence and strategy, we both got appointments for the following week. It felt like a miracle.

I showed up at Fenway Park on Tuesday, February 23 for my first Pfizer shot.

I confess, I was SO excited that I teared up a bit. The pleasant man who checked me in seemed to understand. We could see our way out of this darkness. I had no issues and breezed through, signed up for my second appointment on my iPhone during my 15 minute observation period after the shot. By Tuesday, March 30, I reached “full” immunity. Dan went to Gillette a few days after me, but got the Moderna vaccine, so his shots were four weeks apart. He reached full immunity on April 6.

I had posted my vaccination button to social media and heard from a good friend about going to lunch. But that was the day of my first shot (as a doctor’s wife, she was fully vaccinated already). I demurred…I wouldn’t go out for several more weeks, but did meet her for lunch the day after I reached immunity. We tried to go to our favorite lunch spot, only to discover it currently isn’t open for lunch. Like so many other restaurants, they still have limited hours. Instead we went to Legal Seafood. Neither of us relished the idea of eating inside, but it was a warm day and they had large windows open along one whole wall. We sat in a large booth, away from anyone else and all went well.

Other than going to Martha’s Vineyard (Dan much sooner than I), we have no immediate plans. We have two nephews who postponed last year’s weddings to this year. We will travel to Cincinnati in late June and Kansas City in September.

We asked Vicki if we could visit her in April, but she declined, as she has now had one shot and has a friend coming to visit the first week of May, staying through her May 8 birthday.

David, in London, is a whole other kettle of fish. Museums are closed, he works (still from home) during the week, so there just wouldn’t be much for us to do when we couldn’t visit with the kids. And we still need negative COVID tests to come and go internationally, even fully vaccinated. The UK is still on the CDC forbidden list. We hope they might visit us and stay a while, since they can work from anywhere.

Life will open up a bit, maybe going to a restaurant and eating outside as the weather improves, and we can visit with vaccinated friends. We’ve had dinner with two sets of friends, once at our house, once at theirs. It was heaven. It almost felt normal. Yet, we still must continue to be cautious and wear masks. Cases seem to be under control in Massachusetts, but not in other parts of the country.

We aren’t out of the woods yet, but are cautiously optimistic. Our governor released new guidelines this week. Increased capacity everywhere, no more mask mandate outdoors, and the whole state will be fully open on August 1. I hope everything goes as planned. Right now people aren’t showing up for their second shots and vaccines are going begging. Keep your fingers crossed.