{"id":41251,"date":"2019-12-19T07:48:45","date_gmt":"2019-12-19T11:48:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/?p=41251"},"modified":"2019-12-19T07:48:45","modified_gmt":"2019-12-19T11:48:45","slug":"my-father-paid-four-times-his-weekly-wage-for-the-greatest-gift-of-my-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2019\/12\/my-father-paid-four-times-his-weekly-wage-for-the-greatest-gift-of-my-life\/","title":{"rendered":"“My father paid four times his weekly wage for the greatest gift of my life”"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Photo by Markus Spiske<\/p><\/div>\n

(Source: The Guardian<\/a>)<\/p>\n

He bought me and my brother \u2013 both of us blind \u2013 a tape recorder that dominated Christmas Day and the remainder of the holidays, and led to a long and happy career<\/h2>\n

It\u2019s eight o\u2019clock on Christmas morning, and Uncle Tom wants to hear the news. My 11-year-old self is wondering why on earth grownups want to hear the news on Christmas Day when there are vital things to be done, such as handing out presents. And then, while I am only half-listening, something weird happens: the Greenwich time pips start. Surely we have already heard those. And then the boring man with the plummy voice begins going on about a Christmas message to the world from the Vatican. Surely that\u2019s been on already, too.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s my older brother, Colin, who gets it! \u201cPete, Pete, it\u2019s a tape recorder, you idiot! We\u2019ve got our tape recorder.\u201d<\/p>\n

The penny drops: Uncle Tom and my dad have recorded the headlines, and are playing them back.<\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s often quite rare to experience real excitement over a present: in my experience, children are as good as adults at knowing what is expected of them and simulating joyful surprise, even when they don\u2019t feel it. But for me this was one of those rare moments when my insides gave an involuntary lurch and the world did a little somersault.<\/p>\n

Colin and I had both been blind from birth, and at this point were spending most of our time at a special boarding school, Worcester College for the Blind (now called New College Worcester). In the late 1950s, Britain had just reached the point when exciting consumer goods were coming within reach of the not-really-rich, and at Worcester reel-to-reel tape recorders were definitely the consumer gizmos of choice. For blind kids, they would trump cameras every time, especially at this moment when rock\u2019n\u2019roll was more of a religion than a pastime. For us, you could spot the better-off kids not by the clothes they wore, or the holidays they boasted about, but by the tape recorders they owned. So in our class, Iain Hopkin was marked out as something of a plutocrat by his Brenell recorder. Fortunately for us, Hoppy was a generous soul, and gave us all access to his recordings of Tony Hancock and Peter Sellers.<\/p>\n

Still, a recorder of your own was the height of aspiration, and Colin \u2013 better informed and more realistic about family finances than me \u2013 had no real expectations.<\/p>\n

I realised, much later, that at this time my dad, a very good joiner and carpenter, was probably earning about \u00a38 a week. The tape recorder my parents had bought us, although nowhere near at the top of the range, would have cost more than four times his weekly wage. My parents could only afford it by borrowing the money from Uncle Tom, who had a thriving grocery business. Family or not, I know my mum and dad would have thought long and hard before incurring the debt.<\/p>\n

The new toy, mains-powered and the size of a small suitcase, dominated the rest of Christmas Day and the remainder of the holidays. Once we had mastered the controls (Colin was the technical one, but was surprisingly patient in sharing his discoveries with me), we recorded everything in sight: each other, our parents, the milkman, the dog \u2026 And we very quickly learned the fun to be had at catching people unawares.[…]<\/p>\n

Click here to continue reading at The Guardian.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Source: The Guardian) He bought me and my brother \u2013 both of us blind \u2013 a tape recorder that dominated Christmas Day and the remainder of the holidays, and led to a long and happy career It\u2019s eight o\u2019clock on Christmas morning, and Uncle Tom wants to hear the news. My 11-year-old self is wondering […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[8212,787],"class_list":["post-41251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-tape-recorder","tag-the-guardian"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pn3uc-aJl","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":59151,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2024\/03\/bob-reviews-the-model-l87-digital-voice-recorder\/","url_meta":{"origin":41251,"position":0},"title":"Bob Reviews the Model L87 Digital Voice Recorder","author":"Thomas","date":"March 3, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to\u00a0SWLing Post\u00a0contributor,\u00a0Bob Colegrove, who shares the following guest post: The Model L87 Voice Recorder Reviewed by Bob Colegrove Introduction Whenever I read a radio product review, the author invariably says whether the device has a line-out port.\u00a0 This seems to say a lot about the importance attached to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Accessories"","block_context":{"text":"Accessories","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/accessories\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Table-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Table-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Table-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Table-1.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2442,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2011\/12\/christmas-tunes-via-pirate-radio\/","url_meta":{"origin":41251,"position":1},"title":"Christmas tunes via pirate radio","author":"Thomas","date":"December 25, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Last night--Christmas Eve--I recorded a few minutes of pirate radio station, Wolverine Radio on 6,925 kHz USB. Their signal was very strong here into the shack. Wolverine played a selection of several rockin' Christmas songs. Merry Christmas and enjoy! If media player does not appear above, please click here to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Music"","block_context":{"text":"Music","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/RadioListening-300x190.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7550,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2013\/10\/pavels-70s-era-recording-of-a-german-numbers-station\/","url_meta":{"origin":41251,"position":2},"title":"Pavel’s 70s era recording of a German numbers station","author":"Thomas","date":"October 11, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I read this account Pavel posted on the Spooks reflector and asked if he would share his story on the SWLing Post. \u00a0He kindly agreed. Pavel writes: \"Inspired by a recent thread about a vintage number station, I searched my\u00a0old tapes (I really [have a] LOT of them, hundreds of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Numbers Stations"","block_context":{"text":"Numbers Stations","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/numbers-stations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"towers","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/grimetonbandw-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4042,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2012\/08\/recording-radio-kuwait-with-the-radiojets-if-recorder\/","url_meta":{"origin":41251,"position":3},"title":"Recording Radio Kuwait with the RadioJet’s IF recorder","author":"Thomas","date":"August 4, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"While playing with the Bonito 1102S RadioJet the other day, I received a strong signal from Radio Kuwait. I thought I'd record the music they were playing, as the fidely was impressive for a signal traveling nearly 7000 miles. Instead of recording the actual audio of the broadcast with the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Recordings"","block_context":{"text":"Recordings","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/recordings\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/RadioKuwait-179x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":65211,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/bbc-sunday-feature-leo-sarkisian-the-music-man-for-africa\/","url_meta":{"origin":41251,"position":4},"title":"BBC Sunday Feature: Leo Sarkisian, The Music Man for Africa","author":"Thomas","date":"January 19, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to SWLing Post friend and contributor David Goren, who produced this wonderful BBC Sunday Feature documentary, The Music Man for Africa. The program explores the remarkable life of Leo Sarkisian, the legendary Voice of America broadcaster who spent decades traveling across Africa (and beyond) with a massive tape\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "International Broadcasting"","block_context":{"text":"International Broadcasting","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/international-broadcasting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/p0m2frwx.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/p0m2frwx.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/p0m2frwx.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":11128,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2014\/10\/close-outs-grundig-g2-and-radioshack-digital-recorder\/","url_meta":{"origin":41251,"position":5},"title":"Close outs: Grundig G2 and RadioShack digital recorder","author":"Thomas","date":"October 19, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Mike (K8RAT), who notes the\u00a0Grundig G2 is now being sold at close out pricing. Universal Radio is currently selling the G2 for $54.98\u00a0while Amazon has a price of $52.95. I'll be the first to admit that I'm not the biggest fan of the Grundig\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"GrundigG2Front","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/GrundigG2Front.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/GrundigG2Front.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/GrundigG2Front.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/GrundigG2Front.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41251\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}