Mom’s Radio and Record Player

When we lived in the Heights, our only radio was an old tube-type radio in a wooden box with a dial on the front for locating one of the few radio stations. It had a small speaker below the dial, but the tubes were weak, and the speaker was old, so it was hard to hear the program. Everyone had to get close and be quiet.

A couple of years after we moved to the house on Heatherwood Street, Dad bought a new Airline Radio from Montgomery Wards. It was the first new piece of furniture. It was in a cabinet with two doors and a big area below with a large speaker. Behind the door on the right side was a radio that had knobs for tone, stations, volume, and controls for a record player that was below the radio. The record changer could manage several records automatically. It could manage both 78 and 45 RPM records. The record player would slide out to allow loading and changing the records.

Behind the left door was just an open compartment where a TV could be installed, with a short piece of TV antenna wire attached to the inside back. We did not have a TV because they were expensive and none that we knew had one. That is where we kept the few 78 RPM records we had. In those days, there were programs on the radio at certain hours like The Lone Ranger, Green Hornet, and others that came on at the same time and night each week.

After we got a black & white TV and newer radios, that cabinet was moved into the dining room and used mostly as a serving table. One day in 1973, Mom showed me that she had added some shelves in the open area on the left and asked me if I could remove the radio and record player so she could have more shelves. I loaded it up and took it to my workshop to make the changes.

I removed the equipment and her shelves and made drawers for both sides, six in all. The cabinet was made out of mahogany wood with the typical red mahogany finish used on most furniture in the 1950s. Mom had bought a new dining room set that had a pecan-like finish, so I stripped the old finish off so I could put a finish on that would more closely match her other furniture. I bought enough mahogany wood to make the drawers and for a new bookcase that I added to the top of the cabinet. I made the crown molding out of the same wood. I replaced the old fabric that covered the speaker below with red material to go with Mom’s taste at the time.

For me, it was a labor of love. It was not the largest nor the best piece I have made over the years. It was not the first piece I had made for Mom, because I had made her a few items in my high school woodshop. It was not the largest I did for Mom either, but this one is special because I still have this one in my house, so I am reminded of that time in our lives every day.