*****Percy Faith & His Orchestra*****

The kitchen is the heart of the home…..

It is the essence of a house that engages all the senses…..

That’s it’s job…..

From an early age…..I figured that one out…..

That’s where I would go for snacks (either officially proffered or unofficially snagged)…..

That’s where my Grandma would let me lick the beaters…..or if I was extra lucky…..I might score licking out the bowl…..

…..Betty Joe-Bob (my cousin) and I didn’t care what was in it…..

…..it was always a highlight…..

…..at official meal-prep times, I would stay out of the way…..

…..but on guard & waiting…..

…..for the opportunity to beat out an Airedale terrier for a dropped snackle or a “heel” of something scrumptious…..

…..and there was always that brown-ish/black-ish/gray-ish radio (with its big/illuminated dial which was probably radioactive)…..

…..that radio was always playing…..

…..it was a reliable/universal-constant…..

Perry Como…Nat King Cole…Dean Martin…Burl Ives…Julie Andrews…Herb Alpert…Percy Faith

…..hearing that bakelite radio from the corner/in our kitchen/formed my childhood…..

…..those songs still waft through my memories…..

…..my growing-up years all resonated with them…..

…..(because I was always a dirty urchin…..and usually outside)…..

…..those songs have a lilting-quality in my memories…..

…..that’s because they were always wafting out of the window that was over our kitchen sink…..

…..I was always singing the semi-remembered lyrics from “Catch A Falling Star”…..

But just what was bakelite…..(?)…..

I didn’t even know it was called “bakelite” until years later…..(?)…..but it was the coolest/bestest thing ever…..

I found myself explaining to my daughters…..

…..that plastic didn’t exist before the advent of bakelite…..

*****Bakelite—–The First Plastic*****

…..I’m not sure any of us could wrap our heads around that one…..

…..life without plastic…..whattttttt???…..

…..or rubber bands…..or plastic wrap…..and just what was “oleo”…..and why did we think it was better than butter…..(?)…..

…..(I mean…..it’s name says it all!). *****Oleo Explained…..(?)*****

I miss that old radio with it’s cloth-covered/insulated cord…..

…..and it’s static and murmurs between stations…..

…..what was that noise between the music stations…..?…..

…..you people (who are “of an age”) know what I mean…..

…..and those are my memories from that bakelite radio in our kitchen…..

…..”A Summer Place”…..       

…..thank you, Percy…..

…..not bad………………………………………………