Ah, the joys of Radio!

Remember the joys of radio? 

My grandmother had a radio very much like this one in her living room. When I was a child we gathered around for the evening news and then for the magic of laughter and stories that followed.

With THE NEW FRONT PORCH radio show on my horizon I am thinking a lot about things I liked to listen to on the radio before television came on the scene and captured the family audiences. Programs like Arthur Godfrey and his easy down home patter, Lux Radio Theater, Let's Pretend stories, Burns and Allen, and Fibber McGee and Molly. All those people I could listen to and imagine. 

I still listen to the Big Broadcast Show of old-time radio programs whenever I have a chance - in fact I am listening to it from their internet website as I write this.

On a more modern note: Yesterday I drove to the country listening to the Splendid Table. Lynne Kasper is a warm and vivacious host who talks about a wide world of food. In particular I was entralled by her interview with the author of Salted, a Manifesto on the World's Most Essential Mineral - - as he extolled the importance of salt I was thinking of the old story "Like Meat Loves Salt." The program I listened to in the car is on the website along with a recording of Terry Thiese author of "Reading Between the Wines" who rhapsodizing about the mystical possibilities of having the right wine for the right moment. 

We all carry many references to old Folktales in our heads without really knowing how they got there. Shakespeare may have been inspired by Like Meat Loves Salt when he wrote King Lear. And this tale is well known in Appalachian culture. HERE Dave Tabler writes about those connections. Surprised? Or did you already know?

Wondering - wondering - - about The New Front Porch.