....and did you have your ears on!! (CB slang for on-air!)

As some of you know, my dad was a lorry driver and as a kid I was totally obsessed with "going down the road" with him!! So much so it effected my education, and frequently got my mum into trouble with which ever school I was at, at the time! (I went to 4 different schools) But oh it was fun...I had, had a bit of sulky week though, when sometime in 1981 my dad refused point blank to take me with him anymore, as he was getting snide, micky taking remarks about me from other lorry drivers. They were mostly related to the fact I looked much older than I was and already had a huge chest. They used to joke "Oh your awright for tonight then!!"...to which my dad would reply, very red faced, "Actually that's my 14 year old daughter!!" so for a while I was grounded from Dad's truck trips, and I was not happy about it!!
It had been a dark October evening when dad got home in his oil stained overalls one eveing, at about 7pm.
He had brought something with him, heavy, weighed down in a scruffy carrier bag! He just grinned at me, and told me to wait as he set (whatever it was) up on the kitchen table!!
It was a large black and chrome C.B. RADIO!!!
Mum and I looked on in awe, and for a moment I was so excited I could have popped!!!
Dad explained he had bought it off a fellow lorry driver for £15 as the driver in question had got a newer model. Mum had briefly remarked that £15 was worth a weeks shopping to which dad replied, it was for me, to cheer me up a bit!! Cheer me up? I was delighted!! But my delight suddenly gave way to the fear that I would have to use the thing too, and the push down microphone really did scare me at first. However, after just a week of having my new C.B. in my bedroom I was going at it like an old Ham!!! My ariel was a "Cherry Halfbreed" and only about 3 foot tall, attached to an old busquit tin covered in tinfoil. It got me as near as my mates in the next street, which was not satisfactory for my 14 years old self and I began to research getting one of the best aireals available, a 18 foot D.I. Thunder pole!!! After a bit of creeping from me, my dad got me one and this massive pole graced the back of our house (much higher than the tv areal ) until we moved in 1984....The C.B my dad had got me was a CBMaster 20-80 AM, which was actually an 80 channel *illegal* radio, but I didn't care as I was having the time of my life with it, and now with my huge areal I could DX over to the States too!! (dx-ing is a term used by ham radio people to *bounce* their signal around the globe when weather conditions are right) I even had California once!!! and I also kept a small notebook of all the "copies" I had, had...my *Handle* was Cherry Brandy, which at the time was my mums favorite tipple!! Also it didn't take long to meet my first on-air boyfriend, a chap from Padgate calling himself Peanut (real name Paul Humphries) he was several years older than me and it only lasted a couple of months until I found out he was seeing another C.Ber and I finished with him. Then I met someone else on air who I had vaguley known from school...His handle was Fire-Dragon and his name was Ian Struthers and we were together for several years after this, but that eventually ended too!! C.B was fun though as I made a lot of friends, and in a way it was so much more personal that the internet, but only in some respects!! Eventually the govenment clamped down on C.B'S like my poor AM radio and dad got me an FM C.B but that didn't seem to be as much fun, maybe because it was legal!! Lots of C.Bers like myself were put off and by 1985 the British public had fallen out of love with the C.B radio and the airwaves went silent!!
It was such a shame....and I would love to C.B again!!

10-4 for a copy good buddy?