| Cheri Drake |
This past weekend I went to see the newly released comedy, "Hot Tub Time Machine". Yeah, I know, the idea of time travel is nothing new, even if this time it's four guys accidentally traveling to the 1980's in a crunked up hot tub. The audience I sat with seemed to enjoy it. Even the teen-something's a few rows ahead of us had a nice, snarky laugh at a scene wherein a character with a John Oates Fro slips a cassette into a banana yellow Walkman. So do I recommend it? Sure! A well done romp back to 1986. For me, having gone to college in the 80's, and being about the same age as three of the four main characters, the time traveling montage was a bit haunting, actually. Lots of quick cuts of 80's nostalgia, (nightmare spinning style), with in your face shots of MTV's astronaut and distorted Ronald Reagan close-ups. After that scene the audience was quiet, thoughtful even. After the movie, my friends and I discussed that scene and we all wondered why it left us so unsettled. Maybe it's this.
Many consider 2010 times 'crazy' times. Or maybe we are perceiving these times as being a bit more out of our personal control than usual. "In a world gone mad..." That kind of thing. So what is more safe and comforting that a nice trip to the past? I wonder. It is interesting to me that H.G. Wells wrote his classic tale, "The Time Machine" in 1895, just five years before a new century was to begin and industrialization was propelling culture into a Brave New World. Freud was theorizing on hysteria and Binet was just a few years away from co-publishing the now standard formula for testing intelligence. Crazy times indeed. We aren't the first to suffer from information overload. We've been stressing out over societal quantum leaps forward for over a century. So maybe a nice leap back to the past every now and then is not only a comfort but a psychological necessity. And this time it's delivered to us not in a DeLorean, or though the eyes of a couple of goofy kids having an excellent adventure via a phone booth. This time it's a nice... relaxing... (ahhhh...) hot tub. What health care reform? Calgon, take me away.
Don't forget, my friends, movies aren't the only time machine available to you. Kris Harris and Debra Mitchell take you back in time with "That 80's Show" on Magic 102.1 every Friday starting at 4 p.m. Kris and Debra both promise not to deliver you back to 2010 until each Saturday at 12 a.m. You'll only need an FM radio set to 102.1 or a computer with the addy magic1021FM.com typed in - no DeLorean necessary.
This past December, my Aunt Nancy took nearly my entire family, twenty of us, on a 7-day Western Caribbean cruise. She used the money my grandparents, her parents, left her after they passed away to take us on this amazing vacation, knowing they would have been pleased we were all together. Since many of us live in cities apart from each other, states even, seven days on a giant ship full of fun things to do together was a gift bigger and better than the cruise itself. All the sweeter, the day we set sail, December 27th, was the day my grandparents would have been married 72 years had they still been alive. Our voyage together was a living testament to their amazing marriage. So, off we went, having a wonderful time, watching amazing live shows, (ice skating shows even... how do they DO that on a rocking boat??!), and eating ourselves silly. The kids ordered room service every night, flipping out that pizza could be ordered and delivered straight to their rooms! It was a vacation I'll never forget and I'll always be grateful for that time with my family. But the thing that haunts me now lies in the fact that we floated right by Haiti only weeks before Haiti was to come crashing apart.
Our cruise ship was supposed to dock on a tiny dot of an island right outside Haiti; an island the cruise line actually owns, purchased from the Haitian government. The island is the antithesis of Haiti itself, a lovely but artificial paradise complete with fine, white sandy beaches, a water play-park for the kids, fattening food and drinks aplenty. But that day, December 29th, unusual northern oceanic swells kept our cruise ship from docking. Instead, it was another day at sea. So as we floated past Haiti I ran to my parent's stateroom, borrowed my mom's binoculars and ran to the little balcony off the stateroom to see what I could see of the country we were missing. It wasn't what I expected. Long past the Haitian island paradise we were to have visited, I could see rolling hillsides with hundreds of closely placed, white cinder block houses stuck to the hill's sloping sides. From top to bottom those buildings were placed almost one right atop the other. Thin, brown men packed into tiny fishing boats floated off the shore, the boat's rough canvas sails guiding the fishermen out into the Caribbean Sea. While my dear, sweet dad worried the boats were pirate boats, ("This is Haiti, Dad, not Somalia," I told him, amused), I continued my peering. I could see the men were staring at the huge cruise liner, thinking thoughts I can only guess at but will never know. Some of the men were waving at the ship. Surely they couldn't see me at that distance but I waved back nonetheless. My dad stood behind me, and, camera in hand, snapped a photo of me watching the men, the boats, the sea, the land, the tiny houses. Tranquil and beautiful, Haiti is, was what I was thinking.
Now, I know that Haiti is far less tranquil than it looks. I've long known Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. I have an interesting book with an interesting perspective of the world by the author Thom Hartmann. Mr. Hartmann writes on the topic of Haiti and its people, and their economic situation. The author visited the country in 1985 and described "moving piles of garbage", only to be corrected by the Haitian priest accompanying him. "No, it is children that are on them that are moving," Thom Hartmann writes of the priest's reply. "They spend their days scavenging for garbage that the family can eat." Humanitarian and church organizations now tend to most of that area's children and their families, feeding and educating them. Until earlier this month, that is.
We've all seen the images on TV. No one in the free world has escaped the pictures of Haiti's hurt, devastation, and loss. I wonder about those men on those fishing boats now, their families, their extended families and friends. Our ship was well to the north of Port-Au-Prince when we passed Haiti, but the country is so small that I wonder if the I fishermen I gazed at that day had family, friends or business acquaintances in the crushed white capital city of Haiti. Probably. I wonder if those houses still stand. Possibly not. I wonder if the people in them are okay. I saw them alive less than a month ago, after all.
And so the only thing I can do now other than wonder about their fate is donate to the tireless charities and organizations that are actually helping to change their fate. Have you ever wanted to better the world? We can! Some of those wonderful organizations are listed right here on Magic1021FM.com, or you can simply text Haiti to 90999 to donate $10 to the Red Cross Haiti Relief fund. The charge will appear on your phone bill. I thank God I live in a world so amazing that all I have to do to change a life is pick up my cell phone and text in a donation. Ten bucks might not seem like a lot, or it may be the last ten dollars you have until your next paycheck, but it all adds up and that, as you know, creates huge, positive change. The real Magic in the world, I think, is our absolute privilege to change it. Take care, my friends, and do everything you can to change our world, and our neighbor's world.
Hello Listeners!
So I've been in Athens radio since 1981 and I'm finally getting to know you. I've always loved being able to talk to people when they call the radio station. I'm happy to say some of the friends I've made over the years going back to the 1980's are listeners who call me to requests songs to this very day. But like a lot of businesses who've had to have employees add extra duties to their titles, radio announcers wear many hats too, and that means we can't be in the control room all the time. Enter the age of radio plus internet. What a marvelous thing! This website means we can communicate with each other more. And maybe help each other out with ideas more. And we'll definitely have fun!
Let's get started. I'd like know how you're managing in these interesting times. I've mentioned vacation challenges on the air a couple of times, and I won't be long-winded here, but there have been many times over the last ten years when I've had to get "creative" with my vacation financing. Vacations for my kids usually meant me packing them in the car and hitting the road to visit out of state relatives. My grandparents up in Cincinnati could always be counted on to pay for all the sight-seeing, museums, restaurants and the like - bless them, bless them! There were years we couldn't afford to travel at all... those were the years we invented our vacations! We "staycationed" before staycationing was cool! Nothing made my kids happier than when we'd piece together tents made from blankets and "camp out" in the living room for a weekend. We even made s'mores in the toaster oven as a substitute for the campfire! Those are times I treasure. Now that my kids are older, they tell me they weren't one bit aware lack of money was an issue. They say they just remember we spent time together. Boy, does that make me feel good!
We live in amazing times; despite the crazy thing we call the economy. And I think we can help each other through it all by sharing ideas. We have something now we didn't have in past economically eye-opening times: easy access to the internet. Did you know that anyone can use the internet for free at our wonderful public libraries? Just check with the library in the county you live in. You can all help me out with this bIog! It's our blog.
Write to me! My email address is Cheri.Drake@coxradio.com. I want to know how you are doing it. Seriously, how are you raising a family on a tighter budget, how are you managing to take vacations, how are you getting through all the worries without passing those worries on to your kids? If you're in college, how are you managing to pay for $200 text books? Maybe, if you share your ideas, you'll be the catalyst who inspires a fellow Magic 102.1 listener to go back to school and start a new career! Or save their house! Or go to the beach on a dime! Send in those ideas and experiences!
Oh, one last thing. Those campouts we had in the living room back when the kids were little and money was tight... we talked to each other. And we did crafts with glitter and glue. And we sang songs as we listened to the radio. TV wasn't in the budget back then so we always had a radio on. Because radio, my dear listeners, was and still is... free.
Wishing you Magic in all your days,
Your friend Cheri in Magic 102.1 mid-days
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