REMEMBER WHEN ?

http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/

Old "Radio Shaft" catalog's online.

I must be an "Old Fart", I can remember when "Radio Shaft" actually sold "RADIO'S" !

Now-a-day's you can't hardly find a connector in some stores, and don't even ask for a 1N34 diode (you get the "DEER-IN-THE-HEADLIGHT'S" look).

And "NO I DON'T WANT A CELL PHONE" with that !

I also remember "Burnstine Applebee" (SP?) and Lafayette Radio stores as well.
And a Saturday morning trip to the south side of Indianapolis to "ESSE Radio" (big surplus dealer) was almost a must do thing !

In Minneapolis, we had Acme Electronics. Used to ride the bus to get there, and drool on the surplus test gear.

They are still around, just a lot bigger... http://www.aeielectroniccenter.com/institution.html

I still might have one or 2 of their transistor guide and ic building book, and some projects books....
Ah, those were fun times...

Back in the day, Radio Shack was one two places that my dad could mention and have me immediately drop my skateboard and run to the car.
Marshall Space Flight Center was the other.

I've noticed an uptick in parts and hobby oriented kits at our local stores. It seems this hobbyist robot thing has caught on and we may benefit from it a little.

I was an employee for a few years, store manglement.

Too bad Ft. Worthless ignores what the customers want.

Before Rat Shack came to town there were Route, Federated, Disco, Greenbrook and a few others along Rte. 22 that Jean didn't point out in Shepherd's Pie or Jean Shepherd's America. Then over in Plainfield (as opposed to Fancyfield) there was Laughingyet, here and there a few wholesale parts distributors, don't forget the infamous Cortland Street NYC immortalized by our beloved Dash! For mail order stuff there were Allied, B. A. which BTW doesn't stand for boat anchor and a few others I seem to have forgotten. One thing I'll never forget though is the used tube and parts gold mine downtown, the back of the local TV shop with piles of stuff waiting for the junk man. That's where I got my first SW radio, a chassis pulled from a '60s TV, radio and record player console. Do I have to tell you there's nothing like free?

"It seems this hobbyist robot thing has caught on and we may benefit from it a little."
Not likely, they tend to evolve into Cybermen and give Doctor Who fits and conniptions.

Our local RS decided that the kits were not moving fast enough and said phoquekit. I understand that in the larger cities they have a campaign called something like, "Build America" or Learn America" or some such slogan to help pedal the kits as learning tools that are fun but I guess here, corporate decided to run the campaign, "Phoquekit You're Dumb. Buy A Cellphone!"

Anybody remember the Olson Electronics chain? I used to go there al the time when I was about 11, or 12 years old. They had a better selection of electronic components than Radio Shack. The only thing I didn't like about our local store is that the salesman would follow me around to keep an eye on me. Maybe he thought that I was going to steal something.

As a kid, growing up in Dallas, I used to spend all of my money in four places: Radio Shack, Olson Electronics, Heathkit and Electonics Center. The Heathkit store was fairly close to Electronics Center, but both were a fair distance from my house. I was a lucky day when I could convince my folks to drive me there. Electronics Center was THE place to go for new and used ham radio gear.

Round here we had Gem Electronics and Lafayette Radio Electronics and lots of small radio, electronics and parts stores on and around Canal street in NYC. We had a Lafayette Electronics about a couple miles from my home and I remember one day when i was home sick from school, suffering from bronchitis and the doctor came over and had to give me a shot of adrenaline to counter an asthma attack I was having. Not more than 20 minutes later and as soon as my folks left for work I was feverishly pedaling my bike over to Lafayette to get some parts for a project. Had my folks known what I was doing they would have shot me. :) When I finally got there I found Lafayette was out of stock on at least half the parts I needed. Lafayette stores was infamous for always being out of stock on almost everything. I wound up getting the rest of what I needed down on Canal Street a few weeks later.

Also, in NYC in the area where the World Trade Center was built, and once stood, that area was once known as "radio row". In the 1920's through the 1960's it was loaded with radio and electronics stores.

WOW!! They have my Hallicrafters HT-44 Transmitter in the 1964 Catalog. It was $399 back then, That was a lot of money for those days.