Remember Radio?

I didn't watch TV at lunchtime, I listened to the farm report with Orion Samuelson on WGN radio. I didn't understand the livestock numbers, but I liked the music and even the commercials in between:

" Steamboat Brand keeps your crops a-growin'. Steamboat Brand, you're wise to fertilize.
Steamboat Brand, you're wise if your a-knowin' 'bout Steamboat Brand ammonium nitrate."

"I'm a real workin' man and, as every worker knows, you do better on the job when you wear the proper clothes. So, for style and rugged wear at a price that's mighty fair, I wear Osh Kosh B'gosh.
Osh Kosh B'gosh, Osh Kosh B'gosh, everywhere a factory whistle blows, or out the farmer's way where they stack the dusty hay, you'll find the real working man's clothes."

Last I heard, Orion Samuelson was still alive and doing farm reports for RFDTV. We had it on one day because the local news and weather had been preempted by stupid sports, when I heard his very distinctive voice that still sounded familiar after all these years. Sure enough, it was old Orion, looking not a day over 90. Actually, that was the first time I actually saw him because, as I said, I used to listen to him on the radio, but he must be pretty old if he was broadcasting when I was in elementary school.

So I never saw Uncle Johnny Coons, but I do remember Two Ton Baker the music maker:

"I've got tears in my ears from lyin' on my back in my bed while I cry over you, and the one thing I fears, while lyin' on my back in my bed when I cry over you, is that someday they might overflow the brim, and I'll be sorry that I never learned to swim. I've got tears in my ears from lyin' on my back in my bed while I cry over you."

Funny that I remember all that like it was yesterday, but I couldn't remember when I established my Gmail account in 2013.

We don't have voice mail, call waiting, caller ID or any of that fancy stuff. Again, it's not that we're opposed to technology, it's just that we hardly use our telephone as it is, so there's no sense in spending money on stuff we'll never use. Our phone service comes through a wire, actually a fiber optic cable. I understand that you can get it cheaper through your computer, but one of the few times we use our phone is to call the electric company when the power goes out. The computer won't work when the power is out, so that's that.