A few memories .....
A girl I was dating at the time and I were in the front seat, with another couple in the back seat cruising with us. We wound up at a drive-up food place. While waiting for our food, she and I got into it, in a joshing way, just jabbing and kidding about something. So she turns on the car radio, finds some complete mess of static and sideband slop, and proclaims to all of us, 'Wait! Did you hear THAT ?!??'
That was 1979, long before any of the current methods of listening.
Was at some friends' place once, beautiful day. He's this huge guy and a sometimes DXer ; she's a stick and used to work in radio. A bird somehow wound up inside their house. She's screaming and chasing it with a broom in fear and outrage. He helps out, by calmly walking to the bookshelf, lighting his pipe, and taking out a bird-guide book. He's sitting on the sofa with this book, and his wife and I finally chase the bird out the front door.
He says, 'That was a Chesapeake (something or other),' slams the book shut, and says, 'And I'm COUNTING it.'
As though it were a QSL.
Am driving with the decided non-DXer wife along Linden Boulevard in Brooklyn NYC one night, me with 1200 on the car radio for some reason. I start talking about something or other, and she says 'Shut up a second!'
So I did.
'CFGO Ottawa' identifies.
'Okay,' she says. 'What was that you were saying again?'
CFGO was a new one for me, too!
Girls get caught up in the magic of DX at the weirdest times.
Just a few months ago, I am visiting relatives in the Catskills and am at the kitchen table idly DXing. My great-nephew, age ten, says, 'Wow, Uncle Steve. That's the oldest radio I ever saw.'
It was a Grundig S450 AM/FM/SW portable. Not even a year old.
Aforementioned buddy (the one with the pipe) had been accused of 'knowing nothing about what a woman expects on a date'.
He says, 'I know EVERYTHING about that,' and goes on.
You pick a nice romantic place. You dude up really cool. Maybe even a tie. You meet her on time. You open the car door for her. You open all the doors for her. You seat her. You let her pick the wine if she knows how (and even if she doesn't know how). You are courteous and bighearted all the way through. Then, if you're lucky, she agrees, with customary maidenly fashion, to go back to your place for a nightcap. Once inside your place, naturally, it's the home stretch. You make the drinks, and then turn down the lights.
And then, of course, you DX.
