Radio Shack …

As I’ve dug around in my memory banks, one thing eluded me.  I didn’t remember where my dad bought his tech supplies from.   I remember the Computer Shopper catalog.   I remember playing games on the TI display at Sears at the mall which was about a 30 minutes drive from our house.

I came across a directory for my town’s  shopping center and it clearly read “Radio Shack.” RadioShack?  I didn’t remember it at all. There was a courtyard with a fountain in the middle where the 4H jump rope fundraiser was held one year.   The annual Homecoming bonfire was in the green belt outside of the shopping center.

The grocery store was on the south end and the liquor store directly across the walkway.   At the opposite end was the primary retail shop of the town where we got everything – clothes to school supplies.  I remember the Montgomery Ward because of the catalog.   I’m pretty sure you could order stuff and have it delivered there.   

The True Value hardware store was really neat.  It carried everything from princess phones to sport and shave Ken dolls.  Dad bought phone jacks and other supplies from there.  The drug store carried Fangoria and Soldier of Fortune – much better magazines than at the grocery store.   

I kept digging and remembered way back to a tiny diner that had counter seating and served french fries on waxed paper in a red plastic basket. That became the Judo studio in my high school year. The fancy restaurant, the Williamsburg Inn, was the go- to place before prom. 

The only clue was that directory. No one in my family remembers a RadioShack.  My brain churned and churned. I worked in the shopping center. I’d gone there all my life – how could I miss it?  Then I came across the magical phrase ‘RadioShack Authorized Dealer’.  

It must have been in the True Value.  The directory was fuzzy when I zoomed in on it. I do remember shelves and shelves of phones.  Ma Bell delivered the Baby Bells in 1982 and their arrival disrupted telecommunications like Godzilla disrupted the Bay of Tokyo in 1954.

Rotary phones were rented from Ma Bell and only her.  Some folks still do and get lovely bills from QLT Consumer Lease Services, formerly AT&T Consumer Lease Services. .  After 1982, folks could BUY phones.  And RadioShack was there with tone fones, slim-fones, french-style fashion fones and cordless fones.

There was a RadioShack and it must have done brisk business.  My dad worked at Western Electric that used to manufacture those rental rotary dial phones. I remember Ma Bell’s break up vividly.  The new AT&T logo reminded me and my brother of the Death Star.