The Audio Kitchen

There was a time when coming of age was a short intoxicating ride. Even in an otherwise mundane life, a window of recreational opportunity would open when you’d get your first taste of independence and grownup rights, only to slam shut forever when weighty duties and obligations set you on the treadmill of adulthood. Whether you had to fight a war, take up chores at the factory or farm, or were lucky enough to go to college– there wasn’t a lot of time to make all your youthful indiscretions come true before you had to settle down and work and breed and be responsible, until the end.

To blame? Well, there’s plenty to go around. The draft is gone. The many choices of birth control and “family planning” made a big difference. It brought more women in the workplace and kept a lot of folks footloose far past their twenties. People wait much longer to get married, and there’s really no big stigma about getting married at all. More people don’t have kids at all, or have them well into middle age. And then there’s the complete fetish of life-long adolescence– through regimens of supplements and hormones or the horrors of botox and plastic surgery.

So with this post let us hearken back to simpler times, when coming of age was still an event. When the onset of adulthood was arousing and revelatory. And what made it so spectacular was that it was so fleeting and temporary.

To actually hear these ripening juveniles in their heyday, you have to dig back a few decades. These two offerings were created with separate technologies. Two are homemade discs (or records) featuring a gathering of friends. The others are clandestine telephone recordings captured with a reel to reel deck. I don’t have dates on any of these artifacts, but I’d guess the discs are from the late 40′s or early 50′s. The tapes are probably from the mid-1950′s. At least that’s my guess. And beyond content, what I really appreciate about all of these recordings is the richness of the regional accents. Something else that’s also disappearing in this future we inhabit.

The natives are puckered up and restless in this mock radio drama, recorded as a memento of a weekend trip to Panther Lake, and the memorable necking party that ensued. As someone beats out a jungle rhythm on a cardboard box, exaggerated smooching sounds are heard as the narrator hints at the terrors of kissing in the dark. When the drums and lip smacking abates, the group improvises a dark farce based on the scary radio shows of the day.

Looking around online, I see there’s a Panther Lake resort with cabins up in northern New Jersey. I’d say there’s a good chance that this is where these funlovers made these recordings so many years ago.

While the side one was entertaining, side two is a more factual account of the weekend. They all sound youn enough (except for Helen, who sounds like she’s already on a two pack a day habit). It’s Sunday night and I believe the big necking party must have occurred the night before. But at this point the festivities are winding down, and they’re discussing their disparate destinations and where they’ll be tomorrow. Some will go back to work. Another has exams. And one fellah is heading out to Indianapolis for the big race, which would put this soiree right before Memorial Day– the traditional yearly kick-off of vacation season.

This bunch is far from wild. You might say they were rather square. And there’s no mention of drinking (except for some hot cocoa). And having grown up a generation after these folks, the “necking parties” I remember were part of our social scene when we were more like fifteen or sixteen (and we were drinking). I’d guess the kinds on this recording were at least 19 and older. However, it sounds like a swell time was had by all.

The Art Of Lying  4:44
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“Well, she should be by now,” he says in frustration. “Every other one was.” What? A quid pro quo of dating and dining for some hubba hubba "affection"? Yes, times have certainly changed. But guys? Not so much.

This World War Two era set of disks is a collection of audio snapshots capturing a few blissful moments in the lives of Edward Engel and his son John. The first is a dispatch from dad spending yet another day at the New York World’s Fair in Queens. It’s a crisp autumn afternoon, and ol’ Edward sounds to be a guy at the top of his game. More to the point, this brief greeting has a visceral cosmic quality I occasionally hear in old amateur recordings. Perhaps inspired by the futuistic theme of the fair itself, Edward intimately understands that talking into this state-of-the-art device puts him in direct communication with posterity (i.e. you and I). And for a minute and half you can let go of the illusion of linear time and lend an ear to Mr. Engel.

But aside from the daydreaming potetial, what makes this recording so special to me is how graceful and genuine it is. It’s not a religious blessing he offers, but a real and human one. He wishes the listener good health, happiness, and a long life. Imagine, an antidote to irony…

The next one is a little different. It’s Edward again, this time offering a toast or testimonial to a couple hosting a gathering which has provided him the relaxing blood-alcohol level evident in this recording. It’s 1941 here. And notice how impressed he is with Tony’s home audio technology– the beautiful radio and the "rekkids are perfect." It’s not hard to imagine, is it? Glowing dials in wood cabinets. Tube-warmed jazz. It must have been a good night.

Now we move on to the son, John L. Engel. I believe dad makes the introduction. John praises bachelorhood and makes funny with the microphone. Running out of material in short order, he gets lost setting up a convulted joke for the rest of the recording. Of course, disks aren’t like recording wire or magnetic tape. You can’t rewind and re-record a bad take.

This next one is an artifact from John’s engagement party, which should place its creation to some time in the mid-40′s. The formula here– booze + friends + love = one loud-n-sloppy serenade. It’s congenial and cacaphonous. A lotta love. Again, this sounds like it was a swell party too.

While these records were all made during the course of WW2, there’s no mention of it except for on this one recording. John certainly seems young and healthy enough to assume he had some role in the war effort, but this pile of records offers no clues. Like most folks back then, John was caught up in the weighty issues of the day and this recording finds him prognosticating on how history is about to unfold. He guesses the Allies will win in Europe in six months (it only took two more). And his other two big predictions are right on the money.

On this next record you get Mr. John Engel over the top and quite pleased with himself. He’s "sings" “Mairzy Dotes,” probably the most popular novelty song of the era. At the time of this recording, it was a big hit for the Pied Pipers. Engel adds a bit more nonesense to a tune that’s already pretty silly. Quite a set of lungs on this guy.

Okay, here’s the last disk. The sweetest of the bunch. John and Jane have been married for exactly a year, and they still sound pretty darn happy about it. It’s December 1946 and they’re doing their part to get the baby boom underway.

It appears that John has warmed up to matrimony just fine. And they’re so damn sincere, it almost makes your teeth hurt. The "little angel for Engel" is due in June.