Writing about the whole wash day experience when I was a little girl brought to mind the only time I was on a talk radio program. Yep, that’s right. As a litte kid I was actually on talk radio or at least what I think was talk radio.
It was a Monday. I know that because my mother was doing the laundry. (no need for calendars!) I was about 5 years old and it was the good old summertime. I grew up in Pennsylvania and windows were always open in the summer. My mother and I were outside, she was hanging laundry and I was playing. The telephone began to ring and in those day the ringers were very loud. I don’t know if my mother told me to or I decided on my own but I ran in the house to answer it. When I picked up the phone there was a kind of an echo. Funny how I can still remember it but I do. The lady on the phone said “Hello! This is Dialing for Dollars!” (not exactly the Rush Limbaugh Show, but hey!) Our local radio station had a program where they would select numbers from the phone book, call and ask a question. If you answered the question correctly you won some prize. I was 5 years old and didn’t care about the question or the prize. I wanted to talk. And the echo I mentioned earlier was because our radio was playing in the background. My mother kept asking who was on the phone and I just kept trying to talk. Finally she came in the house and took the phone from me. I have no idea if she won the prize but I do remember getting a scolding. But that’s how some talk radio used to work - they called you not the other way around.