October 6th is National Mad Hatter Day. To commemorate this day, we will first start with “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” by Louis Carroll, and pop-up by Robert Sabuka.
This would be ‘the Mad Tea Party’ with the Mad Hatter.
I have another book, “C D B !” by William Steig, 1968. This book is is like a puzzle, you have to figure what people are saying to each other, when the phrase has only a few letters.
For my story, it should be “C D CB’. Back in the day, in high school, I went to Radio Shack, and bought a CB radio, as did several friends. We wanted a way to talk to each other when we were cruising around. There were no cordless phones, though one friend had two pretty good Walkie Talkies that could be used at a distance of about a block. They just didn’t work well in cars.
We had to register our CB’s back then. I dutifully responded, and I registered with the government, and given the call letters KAEY 6602. We were told we could be tracked down for profanity, or using more than 4 watts of power. My handle was the “Mad Hatter” and I was perhaps like my namesake, a little crazy. I almost immediately bought an amplifier from another friend (who sadly passed away this summer). It boosted my power from 4 watts to over 300 watts. If caught, I might have some good fines.
My car-a Ford Pinto, now had a radio with cassettes, an additional 8-track, a PA with several speakers under the hood, and my new CB radio, that with the amplifier and dual whip antennas, was a mobile radio broadcasting station. To test it, I went to my friend’s home, and cranked up the CB. “Can Mike come out to play?” I broadcasted. The message bled onto the TV that Mike’s dad was watching. He promply came out and yelled at me, “If my TV is damaged, you will be buying me another one, Dammit.”
Mike and I then went out testing the new CB’s, along with Walkie Talkies.
There may or may not be truth in a story about this friend calling off of work at Johns Manville in Waukegan third shift, and then I climbing with him to the roof of the building via fire escape, sneaking across a third story walkway, to get into another building to spy on his co-workers; to then take a midnight joy-ride drive on a Caterpillar bulldozer in the back lot.
On a separate random note, does anyone know what kind of key this may be? I have had it since high school. It says Case 8398.
When I was dating my future wife, I had to spend time talking to her father. The first time I met him, I had dinner at their home. After dinner, he would have a Scotch, and sit down at his CB radio. He had a nice set-up, a Golden Eagle brand with separate transmitter and reciever. He also had a tremendous antenna, guide wired, with a motor to revolve around for “skipping”- long range CB talking. It towered above their house.
When he found out that I had a CB, he quietly showed me his not really legal 1000 watt booster amplifier, tucked behind the wall. Pops was quite proud of it, and smiled. That smile disappeared when I commented that anyone could have a base amplifier. What about a 300 watt mobile one, in say… my car?
“Show me!” he demanded. We went to my car, and I displayed my setup. The smile re-appeared. I was a rogue like him. We were now good friends, and I could keep dating his daughter.
Miss you, Fonda Honda! 3’s and 8’s to you, moving on.
Librarytomes 