I used to have a radio kind of like this.

It wasn’t exactly like this…but most of the radios that I had looked kind of like this.

I didn’t have a set or even a single earphone or headphone….but I had a pillow….and at night, I’d put this radio under it….and turn the sound down low….and listen.

As I write this, I’m listening to Bill Morrissey on Spotify.

Now, I listen to what I want….when I want.

It’s easy.

It’s immediate.

But I remember what a thrill it was to hear a song that I’d been waiting to hear when I had my radio under my pillow.

It was a thrill to listen to music when I was supposed to be asleep.

Clandestine delayed gratification.

That was good training to figure out how to be patient and sneaky.

I like being able to listen to anything….at anytime, though.

There was something kind of goofy and intimate….and, I have a feeling, kind of universal…about hiding a little radio under your pillow when you were supposed to be sleeping.

I wonder how many of us did that?

 

“papa was a rolling stone” the Temptations