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A news item sent me down memory lane.

Radio Shack to shutter 1,100 stores


Bet you didn't know - RadioShack - Leather & Electrons

Back around 1963 - 64 I started going to Tandy-RadioShack stores to buy leather and leather working tools.

They even had PILES! of leather sitting on the floor back then.

I was never very fast, but I did do a good job on tooling leather. That's the only thing "artistic" that I was ever able to do.



Those Realistic shortwave receivers SURE looked good, but boy did they want a lot of money at the time. I think that the lowest ones were about $30 or $40!

My father helped me get one, and together we strung an antenna between the house and the garage.

Between leather work and building flying model airplanes, I tried to learn Morse code. That's when I discovered that aside from lack of artistic talent, I also lacked an ear for Morse code (or music for that matter).



I guess I'm just a buffalo singing the dinosaur blues.

A dinosaur? I think not. Like you, I remember Radio Shack and Tandy. They were seperate stores back then. My dad shopped both of them. He made belts, purses, wallets and once even made a western saddle, all from leather from Tandy. I think that's where I got my appreciation for the smell of leather. Even today, walking past leather kiosks, I smell that odor of leather, dyes and waxes and it takes me back. It's funny how something like closing a place brings those memories flooding to the fore. Now, for some Shakey's Pizza or a Boxcar of Shrimp, fries and Texas Toast to take to the drive-in.

I fondly remember Tandy's too. There was one in downtown Buffalo, N.Y. My dad took my younger brother and I there and bought a beginner's leatherworking kit. We made the usual wallets and coin pouches and my dad made himself a belt that lasted for years. I loved looking at all the different tools they had and trying to guess what pattern they made in the leather. The window display had various projects and tools displayed but what really caught my eye was a beautiful saddle on display near the counter. That was the first saddle I ever saw up close. We used to watch the cowboy movies and serials every Saturday but living in the suburbs in the '50's and '60's you didn't see many cowboys or horses. Now, so many years later, I still think about that Tandy's shop whenever I catch a whiff of real leather.

Radio Shack is it's own worst enemy. It's prices are beyond outrageous. I went in my local store once to purchase a power supply for an HP Tablet. The original manufacturer unit costs about $19.95 at Amazon. They only sold a universal power supply at their everyday low price of $79.95. This store was closed several years ago. Hmm, can't imagine why!

You're so right about Radio Shack. From unique hard to find electronics and parts and pieces, they moved into the consumer goods market, raised their prices and wondered why they couldn't compete against companies like Amazon, or for that matter, Best Buy (which is also suffering from a lackluster market). But Radio Shack (remember the TRS-80?), Tandy and others of their ilk were a part of the 50's - 70's growing up experience. I can' t explain why it seems important now, except that perhaps it was a time I spent with my father as a youngster that was one of the more pleasant times in our tumultuous relationship. Idealistic as a child, realistic as an adult. What the hell happened?

Yes, those memories were of a time when "we" (the collective, societal, we) did things.

It seems to me that, today, "we" want to watch others do something.

But every generation has its' "fond memories", so too will todays kids who watch the likes of Justin Bieber, or Miley Cyrus.