Our long, cold, lonely winter seems to have passed at last, and my south Minneapolis neighborhood has once again begun to be filled with the drumbeats of street repairs and home rennovation projects. So its obviously the time when Minnesotans start to dream of things to do when the temperatures finally rise and summer vacation time arrives.  If there’s a car trip in your travel plans, whether it’s up north to a lake cabin or an extended sightseeing trip, then you’ll eventually be facing the problem of how to retain your sanity once the scenery stops piquing your interest, the conversation has devolved into words of single syllables, and you’re left with choosing something to listen to that will save your sanity and your marriage.  The kids have their GameBoys, iPhones, and portable DVD players, so the hapless adults in the front seat are free to indulge themselves with audio entertainment that satisfies the intellect and soothes the soul.  If you’re like me, as the traffic cones endlessly go by, you soon pass the point where not even your favorite music from high school and college can keep your eyes from glazing over.  But there is a wonderful alternative I think you’ll enjoy, and best of all, it’s FREE!

Back when I was living in the San Francisco area, my business required driving down to Los Angeles 2 or three times a year, a trip of about 8 hours of driving in a small car packed to the gills with merchandise.  For a time, my wife worked for a company that produced books on tape, and we found they were wonderful distractions from the hours-long stretches of the I-5 in California’s Central Valley where the scenery barely changes for 300 miles.  Of course, for family trips around Minnesota with the kids – books on tape aren’t going to be a popular choice if they don’t involve witches, werewolves, or superheroes.  You’ll mostly be choosing music playlists and hoping you can get away with sprinkling a few of your old favorites in amongst the songs your kids choose.  But if you can get the youngsters in the back seat to use their headphones, there’s a head-soothing alternative for the grown-ups: Old Time Radio.

Old time radio programs ranged from comedies to soap operas, just as television has always done.  I’m just old enough to remember catching an occasional episode of “Gunsmoke” and “Have Gun Will Travel” on rare occasions when I was in the kitchen helping (mostly watching) Mom make Sunday dinner.   These old programs are great for car trips because they generally run about 30 minutes – which is just long enough to keep your brain cells active between pit stops, but not so long that you start to lose interest.  The comedies don’t always hold up as well as the dramas because they tend to be topical, and they’re pretty corny even for fans like me.  But the mysteries are still as enjoyable today as they ever were.

Before I delve too deeply into my personal recommendations, let me give you the good news about these old programs: They’re all available for downloading from The Internet Archive.  Just go to the Audio section and you’ll find “Radio Programs” near the bottom of the list.  The Archive includes roughly two million recordings including music, audiobooks, and podcasts.  You can download them directly to your smartphone or easily transfer them from your computer to whatever music player you use in the car.  And again, it’s all free!
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