Settling In The Set

Radio Record, 29 July 1938, Page 13

Settling In The Set

A. Bargain, A Budget And The Berth of A Dial Twiddler Described in Detail

by

ANNE

HOPE

LL my friends are divisible into one of three groups-those who listen in to the A stations and are conceited about it; those who prefer the ZB’s and feel boldly Socialistic; finally, those who favour the between stations and are just ordinary. Often, in conversational silences at tea parties, these embarrassing friends would turn and ask me straightly to which camp I belonged. It used to unnerve me. J would blush and stammer: "Well, to tell you the truth, we haven’t got a radio-not yet." And they would raise the pencil above their eyes and say: "Goodness, but they’re not luxuries any more-they’re necessities’--just like salesmen of refrigerators, and very tactfully turn the subject on to old-fashioned things like gardens and babies and the weather. I complained about the humiliation to Tony, but he said he was sorry about it, but there you were. You couldn’t expect to buy a new car and a radio.in the same year, particularly when you didn’t know how the Government would balance their Budget-and where was the money coming from? However, when I was recuperating in the country from a rupture between me and my tonsils, Tony had time to what he calls "make con-

tacts" with his various business friends and _ fellowdrinkers. The result was, he came to me last Week and said, knocking out his pipe on the carpet, "I’ve a surprise for you, Anne." "Wave you?" I answered. "You'd better sweep that up, -Tony." He smudged the ash

firmly with his foot and said, "Good for the moths. Anne, it’s a radio. Bill Smade is getting it for me; £35 in the shops, but he is taking over the agency and we can have it for £7/1/7 if we want it. What would you say?" "Oh, Tony," I cried happily, my winter-sales complex vibrant, ‘‘why, Tony, of course we must get it, It’s a bargain! Besides, we really should have a radio. They’re necessities now, you know." "We'll have it on trial," said Tony. NEST day the radio arrived, wrapped up in cardboard. I waited until Tony came home and we opened it together. He put his arms into the box and drew it gently out. —

We both looked at it dubiously. "Rather small, isn’t it?’ I suggested. "I was down town to-day, Tony, pricing them, and I saw some at least three times that size and only £25. I suppose Bill Smade wouldn’t do you, would he?" "Nonsense! The money’s in the guts, Anne. What do you want with all that cabinet work?" I decided, anyway, the cabinet work would be more trouble to clean, so I chirruped brightly: "Go on, Tony, turn it on. Where’s the thing you push in?" "Curses! said he with a piece of frayed wire in his hand, "we'll -need a_ three-

point." I left him to tinker. There is always fixing and adjusting before you can start any of these modern electrical gadgets. I had knitted three inches before Tony was back. "ve done an awful thing." "Me, too," E told him. "TI Was reading, and the pattern’s

all funny." "T’ve tapped the aerial of the man downstairs," whispered Tony. "He'll be mad if he finds out." "Can’t you mend it?" I gasped, for we have had trouble enough lately with the downstairs flat and their garbage tins. Tony snorted fiercely and explained he had merely borrowed some of the man’s power to do justice to our radio. "Tt’s ready, then?’ I said eagerly. 1B the living-room, the radio was making a sizzling sound. ' Tony boldly turned a knob and there was a sudden piercing seream--then silence-then more _ sizzling. "Damn!" said Tony. "Let me do it," I eried. {Continued on page 55.)

HIS week the "Record’s" popular woman contributor, Anne Hope, be. gins a new series of articles on "‘Entertainments At Which We All Assist." First subject is radios on "appro."

Settling In The Set (Continued from page 13) _

"Tune slowly," urged Tony. ‘Tune slowly... You’ll never get a. thing Hike that. Let me-"’ -: But just as he reached me a: ‘heautiful sound. burst from the radio. A’ highC, I imagine, all tremolo. It soared to the living-room ceiling ‘and quiver red among the plaster flowers. "Lovely, " I said. "Lovely ! That's Daventry, Tony. Why you:can hear it as plainly as if you: were in the studio," : Slowly, gloriously, the note faded. Tony and I sat rapt. "This is station 2ZB. Wellington," boomed a sudden voice, "If you are tired, out of sorts, run down... ., ," . Tony. strangled the créature. with a quick. movement, "Lord! Longwave! You nit, Anne. This thing has an English face, Can’t you read, woman?" I got. hysterical. "But heavans, if it hasn’t got the names. of the stations how on earth will we. get on? I know nothing about radio and neither do you. We'll just be children of. the dark wandering blindly over the face .. ." "Do. some more nitting, dear, will you?" begged Tony, "and let me conquer alone." : Two days later, I was’ thoroughly bored with radio. Tony spent every evening crouched over the English face, moving the knobs ever so slowly and bringing forth noises like nothing I have ever heard since I slipped with a loaded tin tray on the top of*an uncarpeted stair and’ bounced down to flatten out a spaniel pup at the bottom. Tony never seemed to find a programme that was worth more than ten seconds of his time. No sooner was I- humming Deanna Durbin’s whistling song than he hurled me into the Miserere, thence from the thwarted beginnings of a_ splendid gloom into what sounded at first like a

chicken-coop but ‘turned . out. to be ¢ Japan. Se ' He called it "feeling -my ‘way \ ‘around’ ..., . a ' In the end, my only defence was to \work, the knobs myself, Very soon I’, ipecatne quite charmed by Daventry » ‘which had Pop-Kye jokes and jike.. gaieties that spoilt Tony’s evening * -puper, so he said. wi And thus our quiet nights at home-be- . ‘eqme long-drawn battles, 'I was dis-. ° appointed to discover Tony was de-: finitely, quite definitely, NBS, whereas, I, brought up in a good school, am, naturally broad-minded. Indeed, our . marriage might have finally split. over: lunch sessions had it not beén. for: Wednesday night ... wonderful Wednesday night! ee As usual, I had reached the» radio . first after dinner. **) "Slowly! slowly !?. barked. .Tony, watching me like n’bad-tempered ferret, "Yon must tune slowly" ‘3 "rT have no doubt the- Government _ . interrupted a*ponderous voice. * "Parliament #’.. I... shuddered — and, twiched the knobs. ; , "Fiscal Policy will result , ...’* €on-, tinued the ponderous voice. ,, I tuned again, more quickly. % "Tn, inereased prosperity not only for the people..." ae "Tony, I can’t get away from Parlia- . ment..." ' "But for the Nation at large And {am sure..." Hastily I pulled out the plug. "Tony," I said. "You must ring up Bill Smade "at once. One station is spraying all over the face. I can’t avoid it, The -radio’s broken. You uust take it back to-morrow. It’s not even worth £7." Tony looked up wearily, ‘Do you ‘ever read the papers, sweetheart?" he asked. ' J repeated, "The radio’s broken. . You'll have to ring Bill Smade."

"It’s the Budget," explained Tony patiently, "from all the A stations." And he. laughed hollowly. "Something in that laugh annoyed me. ‘T don’t know what it was-maybe the’ strain of night-long battling for the: right to’ choose, one’s own pro"gramme. Anyway, 1 ‘gid, several things +thit-later. shocked me,:and: went to bed to: work: out 2. :CTOSSIO". 4 _ puzzle, Next: thing I ftemember was the radio / striding Into the room and ‘saying, "I’m Nebbie Hss;° Look at my, muskles, I’ve an English. face and:an: oldschool tie. -Y’nt the Monster you createf, Ha! ha! -ha!. ‘You 'cean never rest until you have destroyed the’ Monster’. you -ereated ! Y* Then there followed a series.of ‘terrible ‘sereams--blood- -curdling Just like a i ‘George Edwards murder 7". eee & sat,bolt: ‘ypright i in bed, wide awake, aDhe yscreams: were: coming from the ‘living room, I snafetied up. a hairbrush and. Fan out. All I 6aw was Tony, eronched over the Wnglish face, tuning eyer,so slowly . He looked: up! at me and, there was a light in-his' eyes... . * "Come -here,'* he said softly. éQome here, Anne," ‘Then he added, "Listen! Itis Greenland-their new station !" ‘At three o’clock I led-the poor man away, still, quietly raving, té his bed. Next ‘morning he rang up Bill Smade and:teld him-he.had "pulted in" Greenland’s new station and-hung up in a pet because Bill sata.there was no such station that. he knew of.on"that wavelength‘ and it must: have been Manila. "Idiot!" cursed Tony." "Manila my eye!" And that, dear readers, is how my husband became a DX fan, As for me, I can now listen without interruption to the New Zealand 6essions in the early evening. The only fly is that when in « nversational sile..ces at tea parties I now say to my friends: "Do you listen to the A stations or the ZB’s?" they look at me in faint surprise. "Ag a matter of fact," they smile, "T used to listen, but really I never bother now..."