My wife's mother* will be 90 in a couple of months. I like to get her talking about way back then. Here's one she came up with on Sunday.

Back a little more than 70 years ago, she was newly married to a young farmer. They lived in a house way back on a dirt road. There was no electricity or indoor plumbing, but the rent was cheap, and there was some good land that came with it. The first luxury they ever owned was a battery-powered AM radio. It was about the size of a three-drawer filing cabinet. You could buy one cheap because once somebody got electricity, they didn't need a battery radio anymore. So they got it second hand and hauled it home in a wagon.

It was the first radio in the neighborhood, so friends would come by in the evening when reception was good and listen to news and music.

Two brothers, who lived more than a mile away, would walk through the woods to hear the radio. One night they started home using a lantern to find their way. But they got into an arguement about some political issuse that had been on the news and one of them hit the other in the head with the lantern. The lantern was destroyed, but the head had only minor damage.

"I don't know how they found their way home through those dark woods," she said.
Howard

*The grandkids and great-grandkids call her "Nannie."