During the Depression, my dad made radios to sell to make extra money. Nobody had any money to buy the radios, so he would trade them for dogs. He built kennels in the backyard, and he cared for the dogs.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Well over fifty years ago I was making radio loudspeakers and radio sets in Rochester, New York; pretty young and inexperienced; but we survived the depression.
I was raised in the Depression, when there was a great sense of dog-eat-dog and people fighting over scraps.
I grew up in an era when money was not readily available. We were into the post-Depression years and World War II.
Do you remember those AM radio kits you get as a kid, and you build your own AM radio? Well, I never actually built one. But I did get them as a gift, for, like, 3 Christmases in a row, and I hated them.
I was never very good at picking cotton, and then I only made fifty cents or $1 a day. People would work for $1 a day during the Depression. So we would get $2 for playing music and just having fun. I think that as a result of that it was not just the money, but we enjoyed doing it.
My father owned a small company, called Gundel Electronics, where he did community band radio and some repair stuff.
Radio was my life growing up. Then, I started in our family band with my uncle, my father, my aunt and my little brother. We would go to The Chicken Box and all the bars and play.
I worked on the United Parcel Service truck, I sold home delivery of milk. But always, in the back of my mind, I wanted to get into radio.
Bill Hewlett and I were brought up in the Depression. We weren't interested in the idea of making any money. Our idea was if you couldn't find a job, you'd make one for yourself.
In the Great Depression, you bought something if you had the cash to buy it.