Today I said Goodbye to an old friend. . . my Cosmo Electronic alarm-clock/radio/cassette-player. That's right, I am mourning the loss of a silly mechanical device, but let me tell you something--this old radio-alarm clock has been with me since 1988. Yep, it's twenty-two years old, and it has never failed me. I repeat. . . NEVER FAILED. (Even this morning, the alarm went off at the correct time, it's just that the horrible alarm noise played over the radio simultaneously. I CANNOT wake up to THAT ever again.)My radio-alarm clock was what I like to call a "learning responsibility" present from my mother. When I was younger my mom used to get up super-early for her quiet time, then she'd head out on her many-mile morning walk. She would often return home to my sister (already up and ready for her day) watching television and me, in bed, still asleep. So, when I was about twelve, it was time for me to get up on my own so that my mom could finish her morning activities, or have a cup of coffee at the cafe downtown, without having to worry about her elder daughter oversleeping.
So, here she is. . .still working but not highly functional.I would set my alarm time and then I could choose whether I wanted to wake up to the radio or to a cassette tape ready to go in the tape-player. I rarely woke up to the alarm noise except when I knew I needed to get up abruptly/swiftly without hitting the snooze button. As I mentioned earlier, the alarm noise is that horrible squawking sound so familiar to all, but hated by me. I much prefer the radio--so that music is the first thing I hear in the morning. As a twelve-year-old, I loved having a radio-alarm, and in high school I can still remember waking up to "DJ Ron in the Morning" on the country station out of Riverton, Wyoming. It was about the only radio station we could get in little ol' Dubois--but I didn't mind.
My alarm clock moved with me to Oregon to finish high school, to Fort Hays State for life in college, to eastern Kansas for my first apartment/job, and right into my first home-owning experience. My alarm clock helped me learn responsibility, woke me up in the morning, and helped me with my power-naps in college. If ever there has been a possession I've relied on more than my Cosmo radio-alarm, I'm not sure I know what it is (besides my feather-pillow, which will have to be another post at a later date).
My alarm-clock/radio/tape-player will be missed, and I suppose I'll go out and replace her today with a newer, fancier wake-up device of some kind--like this one on the right. But that new model will never replace my ol' Cosmo in my heart. *SIGH*
