A Little Sample

RADIO TIMES

 

“Fantastic,” Ginger said, staring enviously at my radio, “can I hold it?”

 

I held it tighter against my chest.  “No you can’t,” I said, “you’ll only drop it, or move the dial and lose the station.”

 

“No I won’t,” he insisted.  “Go on, I just want a closer look.  Is it brand new?”

 

“Of course it’s new.”  I sighed and handed my beloved radio over as if it were a precious jewel – which of course it was, to me.

 

Ginger slipped it into his shirt pocket, trying it for size.  “So how do you turn it on then?” he asked, pulling it back out and fiddling with the dial.

 

“That’s it,” I said furiously, “now you’ve lost the station.”  I snatched it back.  “It took me nearly two months to save up for it and you treat it like a toy!  It’s a Dansette RT66 for goodness sake, not some Hong Kong rubbish.”

 

We glared at each other but I couldn’t stay angry with Ginger for long.  We’d been friends since our secondary school days and now, in 1962, we were teenagers and, at sixteen, we’d been holding down jobs for nearly a year.

 

“Look,” I said, “this is the on/off switch and volume, and this,” I turned the larger dial carefully until a voice sounded from the little speaker, “is where you tune it in.”

 

But something wasn’t quite right.  It was only four o’clock and Alan Freeman should have been introducing Pick of the Pops after Movie Go-Round had ended, like on every Sunday.  I was looking forward to listening to Ray Charles singing I Can’t Stop Loving You again.

 

What was coming out of the radio was some sort of news, which shouldn’t have been on until ten thirty.  And the news didn’t sound right either;  it was normally read by some posh man, but the voice was a woman’s and she didn’t sound particularly posh, just sort of normal.

 

Ginger and I glanced at each other in puzzlement and concentrated on what was being said:

 

“Here is a summary of the news on Sunday June the 14th 2020.  The Health Secretary announced earlier today that there would be a further easing of the self isolating restrictions next week.  In his statement he thanked the public for following government guidelines and staying at least two metres from other people for the last several weeks, saying that the self-discipline exhibited by U.K. citizens was what was defeating Covid-19, but that the discipline must continue.

 

“With the end of panic buying, retail outlets are now able to open at pre-Coronavirus times, with the usual restrictions on supermarkets’ Sunday opening.  It is anticipated that there will continue to be a high demand for ‘click and collect’ in the future.

 

“The government expects continuing flare ups of the epidemic in some regions of the U.K., but the Health Secretary has assured the public that the NHS is ready and able to cope with any further emergencies while work on a vaccine continues.”

 

The radio reception was fading so I turned the Dansette in various directions to try to improve it.  As the volume dropped I turned it up and made tiny changes to the tuning but eventually the woman’s voice evaporated completely into the rushing sound of static.

 

One more small adjustment and suddenly there was Alan Freeman introducing Pick of the Pops.

 

“What was all that about?” Ginger demanded.

 

“I dunno,” I said.  “Perhaps it was some sort of radio play.  Anyway, it didn’t make any sense.  What’s ‘self isolating’ and who is Covid-19 when he’s at home?  Perhaps it’s science fiction like in The Eagle or a Captain Marvel film.”

 

“Nah,” Ginger said, “I reckon there’s something wrong with that cheap old radio you bought.”

 

I punched him playfully on the arm.  “Jealously will get you no-where,” I said.  “Come on, never mind Coronavirus, let’s go and see if my Mum’s got any Corona Dandelion and Burdock pop in the cupboard.”