Thought those of you who found the story of my radio interesting, would like to read the follow up to my story. I receved this lovely email this morning:
Hi Leeta,
Thanks for the reply, as you will see from my address below I am
almost at the other end of England, well Kent anyway !!
I'm glad that the photos brought back some happy memories, and
you never know you may stumble upon another set locally with
somebody that does not know what they have.
Kindest regards, Malcolm
Vintage Radios
What a nice man!
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
A BLAST FROM THE PAST
A BLAST FROM THE PAST!
I was sitting here thinking about the flat that we lived in when we were first married 56 years ago. I remembered our little radio that we bought for the kitchen. How I loved that radio. It was modern and different. Not a brown polished square wooden box, like all radios were up to that point. This one was pale green plastic. And had a sloping rounded back. No corners anywhere. I was so proud of this very modern piece of equipment. Whenever we’ve visited museums or exhibitions of days gone by, I’ve hoped that I would see it again, but never have. I remembered it was made by a company called Sobell, so I put Sobell into a Google search in the hopes that the Company was still going, and would perhaps tell me something about my little old radio from the past.
Sobel didn’t come up, but I did get the name of a place that specialised in selling and restoring old radio and record players etc. He had an email address so I wrote to tell him of my old love affair with a green plastic Sobell radio. I thought it might interest him. Imagine my amazement when I received a reply almost by return. This was what he wrote back:
Thanks for the note, ...I am fairly sure that
the radio you are describing was the Sobell 'Sobellette'
or Model 439, I have inserted a small picture below so
that you can confirm that this is what your radio looked
like.
Also by chance / fate I do have one of these somewhere
in my workshop, and from what I can remember it was a
pale green colour !!...Regretfully I haven't seen it for well
over 15 years, but my PC database still confirms that it is
out there somewhere.
Regretfully these small Bakelite radios, especially those
that were coloured, as against plain brown etc. are now
extremely desirable and command very high prices. I would
guess that the coloured versions of this set would command
about £100 Pounds in non working un-restored condition today,
and fully restored in perfect working order around £150 pounds.
I have no idea as to the condition or state of the set I have at
this time, apart from the fact that I know I have never restored it,
so it would certainly need to be restored before it would work
again satisfactorily.
It would also help if I knew where you are located, as these
Bakelite cabinets do not travel well!!.... They are extremely fragile,
and if you were interested at all then it is a set that would be better
collected than sent through the post or by Courier.
Let me know if this is the set you remember and if you wanted
me to try to locate it at some point.
Regards, Malcolm
I was sitting here thinking about the flat that we lived in when we were first married 56 years ago. I remembered our little radio that we bought for the kitchen. How I loved that radio. It was modern and different. Not a brown polished square wooden box, like all radios were up to that point. This one was pale green plastic. And had a sloping rounded back. No corners anywhere. I was so proud of this very modern piece of equipment. Whenever we’ve visited museums or exhibitions of days gone by, I’ve hoped that I would see it again, but never have. I remembered it was made by a company called Sobell, so I put Sobell into a Google search in the hopes that the Company was still going, and would perhaps tell me something about my little old radio from the past.
Sobel didn’t come up, but I did get the name of a place that specialised in selling and restoring old radio and record players etc. He had an email address so I wrote to tell him of my old love affair with a green plastic Sobell radio. I thought it might interest him. Imagine my amazement when I received a reply almost by return. This was what he wrote back:
Thanks for the note, ...I am fairly sure that
the radio you are describing was the Sobell 'Sobellette'
or Model 439, I have inserted a small picture below so
that you can confirm that this is what your radio looked
like.
Also by chance / fate I do have one of these somewhere
in my workshop, and from what I can remember it was a
pale green colour !!...Regretfully I haven't seen it for well
over 15 years, but my PC database still confirms that it is
out there somewhere.
Regretfully these small Bakelite radios, especially those
that were coloured, as against plain brown etc. are now
extremely desirable and command very high prices. I would
guess that the coloured versions of this set would command
about £100 Pounds in non working un-restored condition today,
and fully restored in perfect working order around £150 pounds.
I have no idea as to the condition or state of the set I have at
this time, apart from the fact that I know I have never restored it,
so it would certainly need to be restored before it would work
again satisfactorily.
It would also help if I knew where you are located, as these
Bakelite cabinets do not travel well!!.... They are extremely fragile,
and if you were interested at all then it is a set that would be better
collected than sent through the post or by Courier.
Let me know if this is the set you remember and if you wanted
me to try to locate it at some point.
Regards, Malcolm
He lives in Maidenhead!
Of course I had to write and thank him and tell him that I wasn’t in the market for buying a radio at that price. But I now have a picture of it. And I’m really thrilled. Do you know I described the radio that I hadn’t seen for about 50 years to this guy, and when he sent the picture it was spot on!
A TRIP OUT FOR WILLUM !
Today we took our cat Willum to see the vet. About three days ago I was scratching his neck (it made a change from scratching Arthur’s) and I felt a nodule under my fingers. When I looked, it was what appeared to be a huge tick, but it was pink and not the usual purplish colour of a tick. As it was a weekend, I decided to take him to the vets today Monday. The appointment was for 4.10 and the cab that was to ferry us was booked for 3.50, all was well in the world. Well, not quite. Willum had gone AWOL.
Not one to miss up on fortuitous weather, he had scampered into the fields after breakfast, and was probably now fast asleep under a hedge, stretch out in the sunshine. He has done this before, worrying us that he has met an untimely end, and then wandering in for supper about ten o’clock at night!
Once he didn’t wander in at all, and three days later we found him weakly sticking his paw our from under an up and over garage door half way down the hill, but that’s another story.
At a quarter past three I phoned the vet and told the receptionist that Willum had gone walkabout, and probably, no most likely, wouldn’t return until after dark or in a thunderstorm, whichever was the soonest. She very kindly said that she would keep the appointment open till half past three, and would then give it to someone else if I hadn’t phoned to tell her otherwise. I laughed and thanked her, but told her not to hold her breath, and we’d see her next Monday (the first free appointment) Five minutes later, my other cat Emma came into the kitchen and asked to be let out into the garden, I unlocked and opened the back door, and there, sitting in the centre of the lawn and washing his nether regions, was Willum. Arthur rushed out and scooped him up, and I (with five minutes to spare), phoned the vets to tell her it was all on again!
The upshot of all this is, we made the appointment, it wasn’t a tick, and he has to go in on Monday morning for a little op and to send the lump to be analysed in case it’s something ‘nasty’. Andy (the vet) says that he doesn’t think it will prove to be serious, but he has to go down that path first. While Willum is ‘out for the count’ Andy is going to scale & polish his teeth and remove a bad one. One thing that surprised me, was that Willum is down with the vet as being almost 11 ½ years old, and I thought he was only 9 !
Since this entry is all about Willum, I felt his photo was appropriate.
By popular and insistant demand!
If my anecdotes bore you I disclaim all responsibility. I am only here because I am fed up with saying no to my siblings who seem to want to read my out pourings! I don't know why I've put this photo on, it's awful and makes me look like I've been dragged from my bed and propped up bleary eyed, to have a mug shot taken. I'll try and send a better one later! I thought it might be fun to start with my earliest snapshots, and gradually 'grow older' as the weeks progress. What do you think? Perhaps adding people as and when they were added to my life. Any way here I am and I will give this blog some thought, and report back to you when the thoughts are worthy of being read! Hope you are all happy now. Adios amigo!
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