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By Ben Jones
Rappahannock News Writer ; I first listened to bluegrass music on a Silvertone console battery radio. Mama brought the new radio home on D-Day, June 6, 1944. I was three years old. Surely the mind plays tricks with memory, but I swear I remember my mother scowling as we listened to the short wave and saying to me, “that’s Hitler.” And I remember a smile as she said, “that’s President Roosevelt!”
That radio brought us Fibber McGee and Molly, Smilin’ Ed and the Buster Brown Gang, Jack Benny, Fred Allen, Arthur Godfrey ■ and countless soap operas, baseball games, quiz shows, and above all, all kinds of great music. ^ Our family was into everything. We listened to the big band music of Tommy ! Dorsey, Guy Lombardo, and ; Sammy Kaye. We never • missed “Your Hit Parade” or '“•The Grand 01’ Opry.” We knew all the words to all the Songs by Spike Jones and the City Slickers. We got our *high culture” from the -Firestone Hour. I ; When we got electricity, - the Silverstone was relegated to the back porch next to the icebox and the old I yictrola windup record play; er. But on our new electric • Motorola the hits just kept a’ . coming. ! • Country music radio was quite different in those days. There was diversity nuance, • poetry, and a variety of Sounds and styles. Within an hour on WCMS-A.M. from . Norfolk, one could hear the -western swing of Bob Wills,
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