WAMU-FM, a local affiliate of National Public Radio, asked Washington-area listeners to e-mail stories about childhood memories of summer. I sent a story about walking to a tiny neighborhood store with my friends to get popsicles at age seven. Pretty tame stuff, but to my surprise, I got a phone call from a woman wanting to set up an interview.
She came at 8:30 AM on Monday, June 25th, with a recorder and a notebook. All this for a five-sentence story! Just as she began recording in the living room, my son-in-law entered the family room through the garage to drop off our grandson. As usual, he yelled "Bow Wow Wow!" to greet the dogs, one of whom is deaf. We moved to the porch, only to be interrupted by the arrival of the cleaning ladies. A bit flustered, I began again. This time, I called Mrs. Porter's store "Mrs. Porter's school." Well, the store was across the street from our school. Finally, we were done. What a production! By 9 AM, to my great relief, she was gone. She said the story would air at 5 PM on Friday afternoon and at 7 AM Saturday morning.
I forgot to tell our kids and I forgot to listen on Friday afternoon. Around 10:30 that evening, we had the "derecho." The power was off when I woke on Saturday morning (having slept through the storm), so we missed it again.
Only one family member happened to hear the story. Across town, our younger daughter, also without power, turned on her car radio and was surprised to hear a familiar voice. She told me later, "It sounded like you, but not exactly."
Only one family member happened to hear the story. Across town, our younger daughter, also without power, turned on her car radio and was surprised to hear a familiar voice. She told me later, "It sounded like you, but not exactly."
Wow, you are famous and didn't even get to hear yourself! I wonder if you can get a copy of the tape, disk or whatever? It would be cool to have it to keep
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