Hälsingborg,
Sweden in the summer of 1972.
I was 11 years old, sitting together with a classmate in the
backseat of the car. We are on our way to a short holiday in Sweden.
However, this was not that I was worried about. The only thing
on my mind is that in a few minutes I will go to the big store
in Hälsingborg and by my first radio ever!
Ever since I saw that my best friend had a little portable transistor
radio, it was my biggest wish to have one for my own. If I wanted
to listen to music I had to ask my parents if I am allowed use
the record player or the old radio in the living room. Therefore,
for a boy at my age it was a big thing that I was going to get
"my own portable music" that could be played anywhere.
It even got a little white earplug, so I didn't have to disturb
anybody with the noise. For me this was the ultimate symbol of
independence and freedom!
However a radio at that time was an expensive thing to own and
the only way I could afford it, was saving all my money for several
months and buying it in Sweden where radios was a lot cheaper
than in Denmark at that time.
So there I was sitting on the backseat, with my mind troubled
with questions like: Do I have enough money? What if the price
is too high anyway? Do they still have any radios left? What if
the Swedish children have bought all the radios?
I remember my father in the store asking the clerk about something
and asking me for the crumpled money, that I had held in my hands
during the trip. I got the box with a nice picture of a radio
on the cover. Feverish I opened it and divorced the two white
polystyrene parts. I took up the radio, which was with round dial
knob and in a brown leather case. Walking back to the car I was
very proud and also very nervous. I felt like this was my first
step into the adult's world and I thought that everyone could
see that: "there goes a boy, who just bought his own radio!"
As the years went by, I bought my first record player, Slade
records, cassette recorder, moped, stereo amplifier, loudspeakers,
cd player, VHS, DVD, Mobil phone etc.
I had forgotten story until some day for a few years ago I went
to a flea market with my wife and my kids. There I saw a portable
transistor radio just like the one I bought in Hälsingborg
that summer in 1972. I bought it and for fun I have collected
more than hundred radios with a funny or unique design
Asger Hunov
Copenhagen, february 2004 |