c:AM/FM Radio Lost & Found

The small rectangle of a radio almost went out for good, but it's back




By Alex Strzetelski

Most people would concede that the digital divide has come and that there is no turning back. Video tapes came and went. A car owner can no longer raise the hood of their car and simply replace a worn part. It needs to be plugged in and digitally read. Even language is suffering as kids and adults alike text in nearly unrecognizable letter groups and images. Is anything sacred in today’s techno world?

Go "retro"

As it happens there is one little abbreviation that is saving the world. The word is “retro.”As many parts of the world age there is a longing for all things old. We like all those items that were grown up with. They gave comfort; the teddy bear, an old lamp or possibly an old Am Fm clock radio. Life was less work. It had a slower pace. The Am Fm clock radio would wake you up each morning with your favorite song. Possibly it was a song that always came across as scratchy when the first Am Fm clock radios came out and you felt so “with it.”

A warm Italian night

Well face it, those days are gone. Digital is “in” and it likely is only going to get more ingrained into society. The image of an elderly Italian man sitting on his porch with a glass of wine and a pipe are getting harder and harder to imagine. He is probably living with his son in Rome with an ion air humidifier and a flat screen television. It wouldn’t surprise if there were an image of the hillside where he grew up on the flat screen.

A simple form

It might be wagered, however, that “retro” for this gentleman is never too far away. The pipe is sure to be there, and the wine of course. But something like an Am Fm clock radio with its simple lines, its simple rectangular box form it must be gone for good. How could that make a transition to a modern apartment? Even if he wanted a simple item that didn’t blink at him all the time and didn’t require a college degree to use. Where would he look for one anyway?

Where to look? Why the coffee house of course. There, where all the new aged modern kids go to use computers. There won’t be an Am Fm clock radio there but the kids will know how to find one on that internet thing.

Yes, he thinks, no Am Fm clock radio here, just one of those green number ones with the blinking part between the numbers. But there are many of those young fella’s hanging around those computer things.

Found and not forgotten

“Young man, I need to find a simple Am Fm clock radio in light and dark beige, in the shape of a box and with a simple silver antenna. I do not want one of those fancy things. Just a simple Am Fm clock radio. Can that thing get me one?
Internet meet “retro”, “retro” meet internet.




P.S. Be sure to check out the website http://www.asimplelifeforyou.com