Anybody who was ever a kid, and I'm pretty sure I was - had CRAYOLA crayons at some time in their early years (maybe even now!). What's that got to do with ham radio? Well, science tells us that the sense of smell is the FIRST of the 5 senses that we get, and usually... the last to leave us. In my case, being of good Czech heritage, I have a rather "substantial" proboscis, thus am well equipped to utilize even the smallest particle of smell, but that's another story.

If you want an instant trip back to the 1st. or 2nd. grade... just pick up a CRAYOLA crayon (the new ones don't smell quite as good as the old ones - guess they took out some toxic substance that we're not supposed to have now), and stick it under your nose (NO, not IN your nose... UNDER it), and I guarantee you that an image of a grade-school classroom will come right on in. Instantly, you'll recall the feel of the desk; perhaps the look of the blackboard (they WERE black, back then), and it's sort of like an addiction... sniffing that stupid crayon and taking a mental trip back to childhood.

New hams of today have been denied one of the greatest opportunities ever afforded those of us, who can properly be called "OM". That's the delicious scent of "burned dirt"... I mean, that luxurious smell that wafts out of a piece of tube gear, then takes you RIGHT BACK to those halcyon daze [sic] of youth and yesteryear, when you first looked into the top or back of a tube radio. There's nothing like that smell, and whenever I work on an older receiver or transmitter, or sometimes, just somebody's "Grandpa's radio"... I'm INSTANTLY transported back to my basement in Mission, KS and that Crosley "Fiver" that had a short-wave band on it, in addition to the BC part. It's sort of like when you go into somebody's house, and you swear you've been there, before... it's the smell that does it.

Do you all recall the smell of going into Burstein-Applebee on 1012 McGee? How about Walter's Radio, or McGee Radio... even Electronic Parts on Main (where some of my old B-A friends still work) has the RIGHT SMELL. It was that curious scent of old wooden floors, capacitor wax, wire insulation, that funny burned bakelite smell of resistors, and phenolic switches... all mixed together that we recall... with fondness. Out here in Denver, we still have an old-style electronics store called Fistell's. It's not much to look at, and they don't always have what you're looking for, but WOW! The smell is REAL RIGHT! The overwhelming desire to build a crystal set hits me EVERY TIME I go in there... but there's NO shelf with all the new National, Hammarlund, Hallicrafters, and Collins receivers on it... waiting for me to stick a headphone plug into.

So - the next time you're sitting down to read Orlan's KAR newsletter - before you do it - turn on a tube piece of gear or dig up an old capacitor... maybe even that venerable CRAYOLA you stole from a daycare center, when they were'nt looking (it was a short one - they'll never miss it!), and take a GOOD L-O-N-G sniff... and travel with me, back to the future.

March 18, 2008