The "Clicker," 1960s, by Marshall Poe

From MemoryArchive

Who: Marshall Poe
What: The Remote Control
When: 1960s
Where: Wichita, Kansas
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When I was a little, little kid, we had a thing we called the "Clicker." The Clicker was a remote control, the Zenith Space Command. There was nothing very space age about it. It was a box with some chimes (bars) in it. You hit a button that released a lever (that went "click") that struck the bar. This action changed the channel, or turned the volume up or down.

I remember being amazed by the Clicker, but I also wondered about how it worked. I realized that the thing operated through sound, so my sister and I tried to simulate the sound. We successfully did so the by hitting metal objects, much to our glee and my mom's dismay. We also used to throw the Clicker across the room, just to see if we could get it to chime and change the channel. This was great fun.

But mostly, now that I think about it, we fought over the clicker, because the person with the clicker was in charge. And so it is today, but you don't get to hear the little chime.

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