[Maggie3and Me]

When I first started listening to hockey games, my father had to tap into the telegraph lines and run a line into the house. Then I would set there with headphones on and listen to the dots and dashes. Thank God for commercials and breaks in the action, as it gave me a chance to convert the dots and dashes to letters. Then I would put them together to form the words of the play by play telegraph key person.

Just kidding.

We moved back to Chicago on my 14th birthday, back to the good ol “Sout Side”, in the old back of the yards area. One of my uncle’s, who was also my Godfather, had a special present for me.

I got a Philco Transistor Radio. It was about 4” wide and 6” long and 2” thick. It came with a round wire stand, which you promptly took off. At the time my thoughts were of listening to baseball and football games on it. Little did I know it would be my window to this great game of hockey

For the next few years, it would transform the long cold winter nights, when the temperature was below zero, with out the wind chill, making the weather outside colder than a gold miners ass in the Klondike. Snow would be on the ground butt deep to a tall midget, however, I didn’t care.

I would have that old Philco radio with me and I would listen to the one of the true voices of hockey, Lloyd Pettit. My world would be transformed into the sounds of the game and his description would paint pictures in my mind of the action he was broadcasting.

One of his signature phrases, "There's a shot... AND A GOAL!!!" , became so popular, they even worked into the teams theme song, “Here Come The Hawks”, which is still played before every game.

Thank you, Unlce Ed, and thank you, Mr. Pettit. You both help convert those long winters into my personal wonderland.