Club members Charlie Nash and Michele Nash, Vickie VanHorn, Ken Carr, Bob DeGousey, Dennis DeGrave, and Bob Sundman went on an outing Saturday, January 13, to the Vintage Radio and Communications Museum of Connecticut. We all gathered at the Rte.184 restaurant meeting place “Somewhere in Time” at 9:00 AM. We took three cars on an hour and a half ride through the countryside to the Radio Museum in South Windsor, Ct. Great morning for a little jaunt and the weather cooperated.
We arrived at the museum at 9:30 and amazingly no one got lost. Our tour guide, Bob Allison, greeted us. Our guide proceeded to bring us through a “tour of yesteryear.” He started the tour with the introduction – “Can you imagine the world without radio, television, or computers. Our world would be completely different than it is today. Here we show visitors the history of electric communications and how it has changed our lives. We’re a hands-on museum. You can tune 80 years old radios … talk over candlestick telephones… listen to 100 year old records… tap out your name in Morse Code… See what early television looked like in the 1940s. It’s all here at the museum.”
The museum has fantastic displays of radios, TVs, motion picture projection equipment, phonographs, tape recorders, typewriters, teletypes, and telephones. Also, there was a small video viewing theater, a library, and a sound effects room. Bob Sundman took pictures of items of interest and also got lots of ideas for school science projects for his eleven grandchildren.
They have a large storage area with radios and related equipment that is either waiting for restoration or is for sale. Charley Nash purchased a 1930’s vintage tombstone Crosley Radio. After three hours of touring the museum we were getting hungry, so Charlie Nash made a restaurant recommendation--Union Street Tavern. So off we went to an absolutely great lunch.
The Vintage Radio and Communications Museum was an informative, fun, and exciting place to visit. John Ellsworth, the museum Founder and President, invited our Club back to stage an event on the lawn this summer.
Bottom line – We all had a great time and several of us want to return to check out the sale items in the storage area.
Bob Sundman
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