Back in Hisory

Chelsey Flenner

Robyn Hobbs (Grandmother) 76

Oral History Project

Sound Recording - When my grandmother was a child her enjoyment everyday was listening to her 78 RPM (record player) located in the middle of her living room. Her entire family cherished the 78 RPM and they had to be very careful around it, because they could not afford a new one if broken. She never had a specific genre she liked to listen to because she enjoyed all music. Her father or you could say my great grandfather was a musician; they had no limitations on what music to play because there was never any bad language. When it was time to wake up her mother would turn on the RPM player, she would come down for breakfast an enjoy listening to the music. The RPM player was on all day, even when she came home after school. When the RPM player turned off she knew it was time for bed.

Growing up she fell in love with her favorite recording star Mario Lanza and bought his record for one dollar. My grandmother and her friends would listen to him every day at their favorite hangout spot which was called Imfeld's. Imfeld's was the place to be when she was a teenager; they had all the latest records. The only time she found out about new artists was if Imfeld's was playing the new record. Growing up my grandmother's parents loved music and encouraged her and her sister to listen to it whenever they pleased.

Radio- When the Radio came out my grandmother was "hooked on it" as she would say. She enjoyed it very much. She listened to storytelling stations that played for fifteen minutes each. Each show was different; some were soap operas, comedy and spooky stories. She really enjoyed comedy shows; she listened to that more than any. The shows would play all day; she hated leaving for school because her favorite show would come on just as she was walking out the door. In the evening her family would gather around the radio station to listen to evening soap opera. The only reason her father would sit down and listen to it with them was because he enjoyed listening to the jingle advertisements. The jingle advertisements were short but funny. They were always about daily necessities like groceries, tools, shampoo but had a funny catch at the end. The family's favorite actresses on the radio station were Baby Snooks, Molly, Jack Benny, and Fibber McGee. Her favorite memory would be after her little sister was put to bed she would stay up late with her mom and dad to listen to the late night station called "Moon River". They never had any complications with the radio; if there were any complications with it her father would fix it immediately.

Television/Cable- The first time my grandmother ever watched television was in her neighbor's garage. It was black and white and it came on late at night.