The Kitchen Radio

     On the prairies of western Nebraska, a plastic AM radio tuned to KCOW was a standard  kitchen appliance. It provided gossipy news, country music, Kiddie Carnival, and tornado warnings, sunrise until dark. That is where I learned the words and tune to Teddy Bears’ Picnic. 

     After sunset, the outside world flooded the kitchen. AM frequencies from thousands of miles away skipped into the Sandhills. One of the strongest signals was from XELO, Juarez, broadcasting from just across the Rio Grande from El Paso, out of reach of US regulators. 

     That was where I first heard Heartbreak Hotel, Love Me Tender, Bebopaloola, Waiting for a Train. The frequencies were taken over late at night by what we called Holy Rollers. The piece that follows is an example of their programming. I once had a recording of this broadcast so I could demonstrate to my effete FM-listening east coast college mates the depth of southern Christian thought……

     This is Brother Bishop from Bishop Tabernacle in Del Rio. A couple of weeks ago I visited a small church a couple hours east of here. After the service, the parson came to me and said “Brother Bishop we would like you to look in on Sister Emma, who once was an elder in our congregation but has not been here for several months. We fear that she is not well.”

     Emma’s house was at the edge of town, a little frame structure with peeling white paint and an overgrown yard. When I rapped on the door, a feeble voice said “Come in Brother Bishop,” and I don’t know how she knowed my name. In a big wood rocking chair on a threadbare carpet was a tiny old woman, rocking back and forth, with a tear dribbling down her cheek now and again.

      I told her that the folks from the congregation had asked me to look in on her. Was there any way I could be of assistance to her in her time of troubles? She stared at the ceiling for the longest time, then spoke.

     “I had a young son, a fine son, who was killed suddenly in a car wreck, before I had time to show him his way to Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior, and I know that because of my lack of teaching my son is rotting away in Hell today.”

     Now what would you tell a woman like Emma? I told her the only thing I could, that if she would wait until she got to heaven, the Lord would blot out her memory.