modern-day technological archeology

The specifications on the case of this radio actually seem rather impressive - after all, who can complain about having a "built-in speaker", or "rotary volume/tuning controls" (which simply means that it has the sort of knob that you push with your thumb rather than one you turn by holding it between your thumb and index finger). It also "provides sweet music for kids" which I guess in itself dates it terribly - since when do kids still listen to "sweet" music?


This isn't the sort of item that you part with easily, though of course not because you have any intention of using it. Instead, because it's in perfect condition (it's perhaps been turned on twice), and because by today's standards it seems so absolutely quaint, it's hard not to perceive it as an artifact of a past, even deceased, culture - even if that culture thrived only a generation ago. It belongs in a museum - or at least on these pages - if not telling its story, at least waiting for someone to reclaim its place in history.


Mom, of course didn't see this radio as a cultural artifact. She was convinced that it was truly a useful tool, though she herself didn't really need new radios. She had a collection of older (and somewhat more complex) radios and tapes that she didn't part with, even when the time came for her to step up to a more modern boom box that even had a CD player.