I carefully removed the towel and there…nestled in some white tissue paper…was the little black transistor radio.  It was so small…maybe a little bigger than a deck of cards.

The box also held a relatively new-looking Timex watch (obviously still ticking) and a small black and white picture of my mom, taken when she was probably about twenty.  She was standing outside, next to a four-foot snowbank wearing only a bathing suit!!  I wasn’t surprised…my mom was legendary.

There was also an un-opened half-pint bottle of Jim Beam whiskey…

Oh my God! I don’t remember buying dad that!.

I took the radio, the whiskey and the photo of my mom out of the box and put it back on the shelf.

I don’t know where my dad had bought that radio but I remember him always bragging to everyone who would listen…that he could get every AM radio station for hundreds of miles around Rocky Point…with no static at all.

He loved the Minnesota Twins and in Rocky Point it had been really hard to receive the radio signal from Minneapolis.

But all that ended when he bought his “trusty transistor”.

I really had  little hope that the batteries were still good.

I was praying they hadn’t started to ooze acid…or whatever batteries do when they get old.

Groaning…I got up off my knees.  Getting “older” was hell.  I walked over and sat down on a white plastic patio chair.

I put the bottle of whiskey and the photo of my mom on the floor beside me and then I flipped the button the side of the radio to “ON”.

“…AND NO CLOUDS IN SIGHT!!  A GOOD DAY FOR PLANTING THOSE ROSE BUSHES!!”

Jesus H. Christ!!! I forgot how deaf my dad had been before he died.!

I was so startled I almost dropped the damn radio.  I quickly turned the volume down and then turned the power switch to “off”.

I carefully put the radio in the pocket of my cardigan sweater, grabbed the other stuff and headed upstairs.  I needed a break.

Actually…what I really needed was two of my freshly baked peanut butter cookies…maybe three…and some coffee.

I walked over to the ancient round, maple table in the kitchen and pulled the radio out of my pocket and put it on a placemat.  I also put the whiskey bottle on the table and propped my mom’s picture up against the sugar bowl.

I opened the “junk” drawer and found the tiniest screwdriver there was to open the radio up.  I was pleased to see the inside was clean and dry.  I did make a mental note to buy more AAA batteries at Clark’s grocery store tomorrow.

After my much needed coffee and cookie break, I carried the radio into my bedroom where I put it on my bedside table…wondering what station choices I would have tonight.

I didn’t want to scan the dial just yet…I had had enough excitement for one morning…plus I needed a nap.

I did, however, look over to that picture of my mom and dad hanging on the wall…

“Thanks, Dad!”

Maybe I should consider sending some cash to God after all…