NARC Picnic Report

by Matt Hyman

I arrived at River Front Park in Fridley at about 11:30 am. The festivities were already under way and there was a lot of great food to choose from. Fried chicken, potato salad, pasta salad, bags of chips, cold pop and water and a cake celebrating NARC's 30th year was brought in.

We all mingled for a while and had lunch before I got the ugly radio contest going. There were seven entries.

The crème de la crap was brought in. I brought in a Stromberg Carlson table radio with peeling veneer. Other entries included a battery portable from the 1950s, a Winston Cigarette

cooler radio (not only ugly, but politically incorrect - woo hoo!), a home brew crystal set, a Motorola transistor and an RCA plastic tube table radio with nice melted corners. The radios were numbered with post-its and the votes were cast with the same post-it notes (not high tech, but it worked). Kerry Johnson's beat up battery portable got the most votes. Richard Skroch's cooler radio took second and Ib Johnson's Motorola took third.

Tom Sargent came a little later and brought a Thorens Portable Camera Case Phonograph that he recently found. It looked like new. He played a novelty whistling record and an Ella Fitztgerald hit on the unit. It sounded good for the size of the player.

The weather cooperated. It was overcast when we started, but got sunny and a little humid later on. We all had a nice time and wrapped it up around 2:15. It was the first picnic in twenty-three years. I plan on arranging another such event next year and hopefully it can become an annual NARC event once again.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the picnic, bringing great food and showing off the worst of their collections!

The Northland Antique Radio Club

NARC Picnic Report