Mar 23, 2010

A blast from the past

The other day - for no known reason - I started thinking about books I had read as a kid.  I remembered one book that I used to check out of our church library just about once a month.  At least I checked it out if Ralph didn't have it; he was a friend of my brother and liked the book as much as I did.
So on a whim, I checked on Amazon for the book.  It has been out of print for years (1968!), but I found a seller with an old library copy in good condition and bought it.  It came yesterday, and this morning I sat down and read it.  It was just as much fun as I'd remembered.  I'd forgotten that the book was illustrated with great drawings and they were a lot of fun, too.
The book is "Today I Am a Ham" and is about a boy learning to be a ham radio operator and all he goes through in getting his license.  Back when this book was written (1961), a ham had to first pass a test to be a novice and could then only send messages via Morse Code.  Then he had to take another exam (within a year of getting his novice license) before he could send messages via voice.  The main character, Eric, is the son of a high school football coach with three sisters.  He worries that he disappoints his dad because he "isn't athletic."  But he surprises both himself and his dad in the end. 

My brother's buddy Ralph liked the book because his dad really is a ham radio operator. 
No stitching today.  No stitching yesterday.  I'm going through withdrawal.  DH is planning to putter in his shop tonight, so I may try to stitch while he does.

3 comments:

Mary said...

You have now become a "book enabler"...lol. After reading your blog, I started thinking of the books I always enjoyed as a child and have not read for AGES! The "Little House on the Prairie" series, "Secret Garden", "Jane Eyre", etc. Ok...have to look for them now to download into my kindle.

MaryB

Rachel S-H said...

I think I read part of that book.

Gloria said...

What a neat book. I was a ham operator, Technician license.
It took lots of study and I enjoyed it for many years.