Many of you might not know this, but when I was little, I actually wanted to be a scientist. I wanted to be an inventor. I would always watch PBS and science shows and even though I had my love of comics, I've never mentioned except maybe to one other person ever that I also loved Popular Mechanics, and to some extent those that know me the closest knows I love National Geographic mags too.
When I was little, on the Saturdays my family and I would go shopping, whenever we got off the bus, the first stop always HAD to be RadioShack. I would go into the store, and this was MY Toys R' Us. I would look at all the transistors, circuits, radios, remote controlled cars and such, and just dream away at what I could invent with all of these items. Sometimes I would buy (well, either ask my mom to buy or use up my allowance money) those small sets of tiny screwdrivers that comes in those cases. I would lose them all the time but, man, would I get my money's worth from it.
My favorite GI Joe snapped in half because the band inside just snapped over time? I'd open it up and put a new rubber band and there you go. Wanted to know just what my Tiger Electronics Double Dragon game looked like inside? Just open it, of course.
When I was around six years old, I was given a small radio because I was a HUGE Mets fan. So whenever there wasn't a televised game, or if the family would rather watch something else that night, I'd hide under my covers like a tent, put on huge headphones that would put the current generation of huge headphones to shame, close my eyes and listen to the broadcast, and I felt like I was at Cincinnati, LA, Montreal (when the Expos were in Montreal before the whole move to Washington), San Diego, San Francisco, if the Mets played there, you name it. And of course, my dear, dear, Shea Stadium.
I listened to it until to my horror, one day it just stopped working. I absolutely freaked out. My family never really had that much money, and buying me a radio that time, though small and didn't have a cassette player, it was just a simple small radio with it's antenna, I knew even then that I couldn't simply walk up to my mom and just say "hey, my radio broke, can I have a new one?" Oh, no, I was screwed!
Mostly out of desperation, I took to my screwdriver kit, took one screwdriver out, and not knowing what I was doing, started my operation. I opened the small radio, and just frantically looked all over it. Everything seemed fine, and since I had already once seen burnt circuitry, I knew it wasn't damaged. I looked and looked until I noticed a small cable was just barely disconnected from one of the circuits. There was a similar cable right next to it fully attached to the other end so I just went to were my mom had electrical tape stashed, cut off a piece, and taped the wire to the end I assumed where it meant to be connected. I put everything back in it's place, screwed the screws back on, put back in the batteries, and with a nervous anticipation, clicked the on button.
As soon as I did, the small red indicator light turned on, and I was hearing the Mets theme through the headphones. I tried as hard as possible not to scream my lungs out in excitement. If I'm not mistaken I may have screamed into my pillow (a good tactic for video game frustration and your first broken heart, I might add). That radio served me loyally for years until my sister gave me her walkman after getting a newer one.
But it was at that moment, when I saw that red, small, warm flicker of light that cemented in me back then of wanting to be a scientist, and made my love for the 'Shack even bigger.
As I grew up, for one reason or another my interests changed. I guess it changed just as much as RadioShack changed through the years as they kept adding cellphones and brand names and tablets and PCs and laptops and the sort. I didn't end up going in as much as I used to.
Last week I went one last time to a couple of them before they closed down, since most stores were shut down because of the bankruptcy. As I saw empty spaces and boxes of junk and store furniture that was put on sale, I couldn't help but feel nostalgic. For the child in me that had big dreams of inventing the next big thing. The mad scientist that would take over the world with his brilliance.
Even though another company and Sprint bought out some of the locales and plan to reopen them with a throwback to the original vision of the company, it might not even be named RadioShack anymore, and even if it did, it would be just a footnote next to the Sprint logo. It saddens me because even if it goes back more closely to it's roots, it will not be the same again. I guess in this instance it is very true that old saying, you can never go home again.
Anyway, this has gone on long enough, if you somehow found yourself reading this, thank you. To RadioShack, to the dreams of that little mad scientist kid that in some ways is still a part of me, thank you, too.
~Alvaro
When I was little, on the Saturdays my family and I would go shopping, whenever we got off the bus, the first stop always HAD to be RadioShack. I would go into the store, and this was MY Toys R' Us. I would look at all the transistors, circuits, radios, remote controlled cars and such, and just dream away at what I could invent with all of these items. Sometimes I would buy (well, either ask my mom to buy or use up my allowance money) those small sets of tiny screwdrivers that comes in those cases. I would lose them all the time but, man, would I get my money's worth from it.
My favorite GI Joe snapped in half because the band inside just snapped over time? I'd open it up and put a new rubber band and there you go. Wanted to know just what my Tiger Electronics Double Dragon game looked like inside? Just open it, of course.
When I was around six years old, I was given a small radio because I was a HUGE Mets fan. So whenever there wasn't a televised game, or if the family would rather watch something else that night, I'd hide under my covers like a tent, put on huge headphones that would put the current generation of huge headphones to shame, close my eyes and listen to the broadcast, and I felt like I was at Cincinnati, LA, Montreal (when the Expos were in Montreal before the whole move to Washington), San Diego, San Francisco, if the Mets played there, you name it. And of course, my dear, dear, Shea Stadium.
I listened to it until to my horror, one day it just stopped working. I absolutely freaked out. My family never really had that much money, and buying me a radio that time, though small and didn't have a cassette player, it was just a simple small radio with it's antenna, I knew even then that I couldn't simply walk up to my mom and just say "hey, my radio broke, can I have a new one?" Oh, no, I was screwed!
Mostly out of desperation, I took to my screwdriver kit, took one screwdriver out, and not knowing what I was doing, started my operation. I opened the small radio, and just frantically looked all over it. Everything seemed fine, and since I had already once seen burnt circuitry, I knew it wasn't damaged. I looked and looked until I noticed a small cable was just barely disconnected from one of the circuits. There was a similar cable right next to it fully attached to the other end so I just went to were my mom had electrical tape stashed, cut off a piece, and taped the wire to the end I assumed where it meant to be connected. I put everything back in it's place, screwed the screws back on, put back in the batteries, and with a nervous anticipation, clicked the on button.
As soon as I did, the small red indicator light turned on, and I was hearing the Mets theme through the headphones. I tried as hard as possible not to scream my lungs out in excitement. If I'm not mistaken I may have screamed into my pillow (a good tactic for video game frustration and your first broken heart, I might add). That radio served me loyally for years until my sister gave me her walkman after getting a newer one.
But it was at that moment, when I saw that red, small, warm flicker of light that cemented in me back then of wanting to be a scientist, and made my love for the 'Shack even bigger.
As I grew up, for one reason or another my interests changed. I guess it changed just as much as RadioShack changed through the years as they kept adding cellphones and brand names and tablets and PCs and laptops and the sort. I didn't end up going in as much as I used to.
Last week I went one last time to a couple of them before they closed down, since most stores were shut down because of the bankruptcy. As I saw empty spaces and boxes of junk and store furniture that was put on sale, I couldn't help but feel nostalgic. For the child in me that had big dreams of inventing the next big thing. The mad scientist that would take over the world with his brilliance.
Even though another company and Sprint bought out some of the locales and plan to reopen them with a throwback to the original vision of the company, it might not even be named RadioShack anymore, and even if it did, it would be just a footnote next to the Sprint logo. It saddens me because even if it goes back more closely to it's roots, it will not be the same again. I guess in this instance it is very true that old saying, you can never go home again.
Anyway, this has gone on long enough, if you somehow found yourself reading this, thank you. To RadioShack, to the dreams of that little mad scientist kid that in some ways is still a part of me, thank you, too.
~Alvaro