Saturday, March 28, 2009

End Of An Era

My Dad has been diagnosed with cancer and is 86 years old. He must be thinking his end is near-we don't think that way- because he is starting to dismantle his house. He has been an amateur ham radio operator since he was 16-spent most of his free time on the air, building radios, fixing radios or going to radio flea markets. It was his passion and his hobby. Anyway last week he became insistent while he was in the hospital that the towers/antennae on the house come down and be gone. We didn't believe him at first and questioned him repeatedly to see if he really meant it. I hope he really did because he nominated my husband to take them down. And Tom did just that yesterday. So after all these years of listening to the squeaks, warbles, funny voices and Morse code emitting from the basement it will all be silent. No more tower whirring around on the roof . No more cold suppers because he was on the air waiting for a sched to talk to the other side of the world or a satelite to go by so he could transmit. It was a big part of our growing up listening to all that-he even put a speaker on the front lawn way back when so the neighborhood could hear Sputnik go over our heads.
I suppose the neighbors will be glad to see or not see the tower any more. It is rather ugly and did stick up pretty far over the roof. But to me the house will seem empty without it. A big part of my life was taken away yesterday too.

73's

Amy

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