Friday, October 27th, 2023. 2:51 AM.
Today is the 300th day of this year.
Remembering My Dad
Raymond Arthur Richer
He was a pilot and a flight officer in the Army-Air Corp during World War Two – before that military branch became known as The United States Air Force. Thankfully and mercifully, by the time he was ready for combat duty as a pilot, “the war to end all wars” was coming to an end.
I’m almost 72 years old now and still think of dad. When I go out walking in Woonsocket, the houses I see often remind me of the service calls we went on together. We put up an antenna on the house that used to be Dimeglio’s Pizza at the corner of Social Street and Diamond Hill Road; so whenever I walk up Social Street on the way to Stop & Shop in South Bellingham, Massachusetts, I recall that time in 1968 when Dad and I were on the roof of that house; and there’s a house on Brook Street we went to; and a house near the corner of East School and Social Streets. After returning to civilian life, my dad got married. And he was working at Jolicoeur Furniture Store in Woonsocket, Rhode Island — at the corner of Front and Bernon Streets. He told me when the store began selling TVs in the 1950s, he knew he wanted to get into that business. So, he began taking night classes on the G.I. Bill – learning to repair TVs and radios. After graduating from Rhode Island Radio and Electronics School in Cranston, R.I. at Garden City, he told me he was going to look for a job at a store that did that kind of work – TV and radio service; but an older friend, Mr. Reith, who was already in that business at Reith’s TV, told my dad, “Start your own business, Ray.” So, that is what my dad did. And he made his new TV and Radio Sales and Service business a success. And when I was a young teenager one Sunday, I was in my room making a model airplane; and dad came upstairs and I don’t remember his exact words now, but he let me know I was to come into his shop and start working there on Monday after school; so, that’s how I got my very first job. And dad’s business was directly across the street from another shop: The House of Brides, a bridal shop. I worked at dad’s shop for about three years – my teenage years – keeping the shop open while dad was making service calls in people’s homes; helping him deliver TV sets; helping him install antennas on housetops; doing simple repairs to radios and removing the back of TV sets for dad to work on them when he got back from his service calls; filing schematics that dad would put on the top of his filing cabinet; sweeping the floor and dusting the new floor model TVs on display and the new transistor radios on the shelf; attending to customers who came into the shop while dad was on calls.
Nowadays, whenever I do things at home that have to do with my radio such as rearranging the electrical cord – it’s just a very simple thing – but still . . . it reminds me of dad. And I really like doing that and thinking of my dad: “I’m doing something just like dad did in his TV and radio shop back in the day when he was living — and I wasn’t even old enough to be in first grade yet.” Sometimes, I’d go by dad’s shop on the way to Farland’s Grocery Store right next door to dad’s shop when I was very young. If dad’s door was open during warm weather months, I’d call out, “Hi Dad!” Later, when I was a young teenager, sometimes I’d go out on “calls” with him; and he would be working on someone’s TV set. Maybe the back of the TV was removed; and he’d be there working on his knees repairing it. I like radio. My dad’s TV shop was called “Richer’s Radio & TV.” He started that business in the mid-1950s. I was only about 6 years old. Dad also installed TV antennas on people’s houses. And he sold TVs and radios and phonographs. Color TV hadn’t even come out yet, in the 1950s. Transistor radios were just then beginning to be popular. Across the street from my dad’s shop was another shop – a much different kind of business. The House of Brides. And just to the left of my dad’s TV shop was a grocery store: Farland’s Groceries. And just to the right of his shop was Johnny the Cobler’s Shoe Repair business. And also across the street – Elm Street – was a veterans club – at the corner of Winthrop and Elm Streets. And on Election Day many people would be lined up outside waiting to go in there and vote. And across the street was Dionne’s Market – at the corner of Elm Street and Hebert Avenue.
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