Around 1960, when transistor radios had entered our lives for good, I decided to get one for myself. The basement of the "MINION" store, as many will remember, was one of the most suitable places for this market. So after a lot of searching I came across a "National Panasonic", which you can see in the photo. The purchase price was 800 drachmas. So I went to the cash register, but to my surprise, the cashier ask for my personal info, in order to send it to the EIR (national radio institution, which forced radio owners to pay a monthly fee - for more For information on this click here ). Leave it my friend, I won't buy it, I replied.
- Well, do not worry, I will not send anything, he assured me.
It would probably be my wild look that made him change his mind immediately, so the transistor became mine. I was so longing for that transistor that the same night I spent it with it. The next morning I was tired from sleeping late, but happy like I had won the lottery. It has since become an inseparable friend of mine. During the day in the construction site, I worked as an electrician and at night I had it close to my eara and its music calmed me.
And then came the military service. The first, and perhaps the only thing I took with me was the transistor. Seeing it at the gate, the officer asked me if I had the impression that I was going on vacations. Unfortunately for me he kept it and returned it to me after the swearing in. How I felt like a new recruit and without its company is indescribable.
Technology has brought FM to the forefront, resulting the marginalization of my transistor. But this does not mean that it has lost its value for me; it is an important part of my youth…
Here you see tickets of an older time. What made my friends and me collect them is that reading them from left to right, and vice versa, they have the same number. You will notice that only the latter is different and that is what I would like to talk about.
One night, as I was returning from the night school I was going to, the cashier (they were selling the tickets inside the bus) gave me the ticket in question. Looking at it I went crazy, because it was only one number away from the ticket that matched my collection, so I started looking at the man who got that one. I did not get off at my stop, but after two stops, where he got off too, hoping he would throw it somewhere to get it. I followed him to his house, but in vain, he did not throw it away! (now that I think about it, maybe he was also a collector?)
Disappointed, I returned home, of course late. When my mother asked me why I was late, I excused myself for missing the bus and took the next one. How can I explain to her about my adventure!
Now, many of you will be wondering why I did not ask the man. What can I say… different years!
I spent my childhood in a neighborhood with many children (settlement for families with many children at new Liosia. It still exists). So there we went all day barefoot. We only put on shoes on Sunday for church and when we had school, in this neighborhood where we made our toys ourselves.
The stick, the ball made from sails and the luckiest found ball bearings to make a scooter. In the yard of Mr. Stelios there was a large tree with a swing. There we were crowding up for who would be the first to use it. We swayed for endless hours. Mr. Stelios, however, wanted to sleep at noon. But we didn't understand about time, as the day was not enough for us to play! If our mothers had not called us at night, we wouldn't go to bed!
So in this neighborhood, one day Christos appeared with a watch in his hand. He proudly told us that his uncle had brought it from America. And we, in order to get some of his joy, kept asking him the time and he would happily tell us: "it's quarter past three, ten to five, twenty past seven". After a few days making the same question, Christos was reluctant to answer and one day he told us that he should not constantly look at his watch, because it will get old. Why did he go and say that? The trolling that followed was unbelievable. We asked him what time it was even when he was not wearing the watch.
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