Remember CB radio? Back in the late seventies, it was all the rage. I was caught up in it as well. Though some people were rude jerks on the air, I met many excellent CBers and formed strong friendships with them.
I remember very clearly the last coffee break that The Channel Five Crowd, as we referred to ourselves, met for the last time. Auntie Diane, as we called her, organized it at a certain restaurant for an afternoon in October.
Over burgers and many cups of coffee, the six of us talked for several hours. Afterward, we posed for pictures by the Edmonton Colosseum, as it was called then. We eventually parted, not realizing it was the last time we'd meet together.
My friends and I continued to be active on the radio but something changed that day. One by one, my CB buddies disappeared. I eventually gave up the CB and studied for my amateur radio licence. Though my new ham operator friends and I met for coffee occasionally, the informal warmth of The Channel Five Crowd was missing.
I wrote about my love of radio in
Deliverance from Jericho and
When a Man Loves a Rabbit. Both books are available from this page.
I never used a CB radio, but when my younger brother Andy and I were kids, we had walkie talkies. We used these to communicate with each other from our bedrooms. One night, we heard other voices and assumed they belonged to truckers on their CBs. To be funny, Andy kept repeating what they were saying. They apparently heard us, too, because one guy finally said, "Who's the bum at the other end of this thing?"
ReplyDeleteSeveral years ago when my father and I spent Christmas with Andy and his family in New Mexico, Dad got the kids a set of walkie talkies, and we all had fun playing around with them. At one point, I found myself talking to a kid who wasn't one of my nephews. Isn't it funny how radio waves work sometimes?
Abbie Johnson Taylor, Author of
We Shall Overcome
and
How to Build a Better Mousetrap: Recollections and Reflections of a Family Caregiver
http://abbiescorner.wordpress.com