My PARENTS' WORK - District of Saanich

"We had a grammaphone when we lived on
Regina. We got a radio when we moved down
to Earl Grey. Daddy had a surprise for us. He
told us to walk around the block, down and up
Obed and around and up Maddock and back
down. We came back and he said, 'we're
not ready.' We had to go around a
second time and then we were
allowed in the house and there
was the radio. We used to
listen to 'One Man's
Family,' 'Amos and Andy,'
'Orphan Annie' and
'Death Rides the
Highway."
GRACE HAWKINS, 79
'There was no TV so it was
strictly radio. Radio shows were
things like 'Amos and Andy' and a
lot of soap operas. There was one called
'Just Plain Bill' and there was 'Mary Worth,'
'Helen Trent,' 'Can a Woman Find Love at
3S?'-you know, those sort of silly soap operas.
In later years, there was 'Jack Benny' and
'Burns and Allen,' 'Three Black Crows'-all
shows you had to listen to and use your
imagination. "
KEN STOFER, 79
"We had a grammaphone out at our cottage in
Deep Cove that we used to wind up and put
on these really thick records. We used to dance
on the grass to these funny old records. I
remember one was called "Do You Know
Where the Flies Go in the Wintertime?"
JOYCE M. (HOBBS) PETERSON, 68
Our dad had a Victor Orthothonic in the
McMorran's tearoom for the first dances he ran
in abour 1922. You wound the thing up and
the young sweethearts camping on the beach
would come up and dance to some of these
numbers. Later on, he had Irvin's Orchestra
and it was 25 cents admission. Later, when
electricity came in, he had a Wurlitzer. At
Royal Oak School, there was a funny old radio
set up. We used to gather around there to hear
Walrer Damrosh give us music and classical
training. After that, if the teacher wasn't at
hand, we'd hear CRCV in Vancouver give their
station announcement, then 'Knock, Knock,
Knock. It's the Happy Guy.' The station used
to have this famous musician from Toronto
play music, and we'd hope the teacher wouldn't
come in and turn the radio off."
ERIC WALLACE MCMORRAN, 75
"My grandfather had a radio, a Philco, a big
long box. It was metal and all the tubes were
on the side. There was a speaker, and he used
to set the speaker up on a high shelf in his
store on Cadboro Bay Beach. It played radio
programs and music. People would be out in
the rowboats by 10 Mile Point and they could
still hear the music and the radio programs
because sound
travels on the water.
People who rented
the little shacks on
the beach in the
summer would
gather around my
grandfather's store to
listen to their
favourite radio
programs. We
listened to AI Jolson
and Gracie Fields Wuriitzer
sing. My brother and I had a favourite radio
program, 'Little Orphan Annie.' Then there
was 'Fibber McGee and Molly' and Joe Penner,
whose line was 'Do you want to buy a duck?'
We laughed at silly things then, bur we do
today, don't we?"
GROWING UP IN SAANICH ...
BETTY-JEAN 'B!' (SAUNDERS) FAIR
"When we were youngsters, we looked forward
to the summer holidays picnicking at Japanese
Gardens and watching the concerts. They had
vaudeville there in those days so we always
made sure we watched it every afternoon
during the summer holidays. We also looked
forward to swimming in the Gorge."
MURIEL 'ASHY' MARY (ASH) LOCKHART