Glenn Miller

GLENN MILLER
I was listening to the local TV-Community channel last night - while cleaning up the kitchen after dinner. My ears perked up when I heard this beautiful melody - Glenn Miller’s orchestra playing his theme song - “Moonlight Serenade” - one of my favorite tunes. Glenn would sign off his radio broadcasts with this song.
Glenn Miller and I go back a long ways - to 1937 - 70 years! While he was a few years older, we still had something in common. He could play very pleasing music, while I could appreciate the same music talent.
Talk about nostalgia! My thoughts went back to that era in a flash. I could visualize driving my 1931 Ford Model A coupe, near my parents home at 715 Oak Street, in Ypsilanti. On my car radio was Glenn Miller and his orchestra playing from Glenn Island Casino in New York. I would do this quite often. After supper on a warm summer evening I would just ride around town listening to the music on my car radio. I had the radio installed after I bought the car, second-hand, for $165.
Your first thought is, probably, what a waste of gas! Back then, gasoline was only $.18 a gallon.(I ,also, got good mileage from the small four-cylinder engine). Compared to the $3.35 a gallon, at our neighborhood gas station, it was cheap, but it is all relative. At the same time, I was only earning $.25 an hour. I was assembling Kadette radios and Argus cameras in Ann Arbor. (My Ypsilanti friend, Jim Leslie, still has a beautiful C-3 camera from that vintage.) So, I had to work about 43 minutes to pay for a gallon of gas. Today, assuming a wage of $10.00 an hour, I would have to work only 20 minutes to buy a gallon! Conclusion:- Things aren’t always what they appear to be.