Sweet memories, buried for decades, that popped up when cleaning out my closet.

Last week, as an homage to the new year, I decided to clean out my “craft” closet. You know the kind. It has shelves and a big space to stack boxes on boxes on boxes. It was where I kept all the crafty supplies I used when our grandson spent his weekdays with us while his mama worked, before he started school. After he started school, he joined Odyssey of the Mind and, as the coach for his teams, I kept the closet full of even more stuff, bigger materials for costumes, props, and backdrops.  There were at least seven years of mélange that I shifted and restacked over and over – paper, cardboard for building things, paints, plasters, rocks, plastics parts for cars and planes, shells, crayons, markers, stickers, clips, scissors, etc.  – you get the idea. Now he’s seventeen, off on another course – competitive cycling, and crafty materials are no longer needed. I looked for filters for the water system in our frig and they were hiding under piles of all that important stuff. After I dug them out, I decided to clear out what was no longer useful. And there were three giant lawn-and-leaf-sized trash bags full. Some went to recycle, some to Goodwill, and lots to the trash. It made me think of the old radio show Fibber McGee and Molly. You have to be of a certain age to recall old radio shows. And that set me remembering, since I’m now a certain age plus one.

My parents both worked when I was a kid. Before I was old enough for school, Mom took me to a woman’s house on workdays. I don’t remember anything about the woman except that she, and consequently we, listened to the radio all day long. In those days, the 1940s, the Golden Age of Radio, families enjoyed a variety of great entertainment.

There were no other children in her house. She was very nice to me. I did puzzles, coloring books, and crafty things while she cleaned her house. Soap operas, variety musical shows, suspense, game shows, and comedy programs played on the radio all day in 15 or 30-minute segments. I remember Fibber McGee and Molly, One Man’s Family, Guiding Light, Kate Smith, The Aldrich Family, Baby Snooks, Bing Crosby, Jack Benny, various game shows, and The Shadow. They were the background chatter all day long. I don’t recall what they were about because, as a pre-schooler, I wasn’t listening very closely to them. I remember theme songs and bits and pieces of repetitive dialogue. I remember the spooky voice saying “The Shadow Knows”.

Fibber McGee and Molly were a married couple, sort of like Lucy and Desi. One thing that stands out in my mind was when Fibber opened his hall closet, and chaos rained down with the loudest clatter, bang, boom, squeak, and Molly would say, “Dear oh dear, Fibber, look at all that junk that fell out of your closet. When are you gonna clean it out? T’aint funny, McGee.”  My craft closet reminded me of Fibber’s.

Additionally, a memory floated to the surface a few days later with a song from the same era as Fibber. I woke one morning with the inimitable Kate Smith singing in my head, “When the Moon Comes Over the Mountain”. The Kate Smith show was on every day at noon. That was when my babysitter would sit me down at the table for lunch. I’m sure she made a variety of things, but all I remember is home-made tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich. I don’t remember the lyrics of the song, but when I recalled the tune, I could taste tomato soup.

Through the magic of the internet, you can now listen to those old-timey programs.