Paul Harvey Aurandt: Another bit of America is gone
Paul Harvey was part of the soundtrack of my young life. I remember my grandfather, in his 60s shutting down his one-man operation saw mill just before noon and walking back to his wood shop behind the house to meet my grandmother who brought him a sandwich (usually his favorite liverwurst and limburger cheese – typical Scandi, he always loved food that stinks) and a glass of milk in the weather-worn shed so he could listen to Paul Harvey read the news to him. In his seventies, of course he couldn’t run the saw mill anymore, but his daily Paul Harvey routine continued.
I remember staying at my Great-aunt Edith’s farm with her and Uncle Barney. At noon, Barney would stop doing chores and head back to the house for lunch with Paul Harvey and Edith.
My other grandfather would stop doing chores on his dairy farm in time to hear the Paul Harvey-delivered news of the day wit hall of his pregnant pauses and strange inflections.
It was reasonable that when I got to a point in my life when I had the opportunity to listen to Harvey on a regular basis, the sound of his voice brought back the smells of farms and saw mills and Grandma’s kitchen, liverwurst and limburger sandwiches.
When Harvey’s son started doing the news a few years back, I lost interest because it just wasn’t the same. But today, Mr. Harvey is with his greatest fans.
Category: Media, Pointless blather
I remember my Gramp doing the same. Except we were always driving to help someone else. Our lunch was always italian food or bread with salad as we are Italian.
I remember eating lunch with my grandparents as a kid, when they took a break from running their nursery, and Paul Harvey’s commentary was part of the local TV station’s noon newscast.
Two phrases that will stick forever in my mimd. “This is Paul Harvey, Stand by for news!” and “And now you know the rest of the story.”. The military bases I was stationed at were usually in far flung areas,away from major cities, but you could always count on finding Paul Harvey on the radio. I haven’t heard him in years, but he will be sorely missed.
Thanks Jonn, I have all those memories with Grandad and your uncle Dave in the milk barn. It’s funny I think dad took the tradition of listening in the to even higher levels of importance, when Grandad was gone, as if his dad had handed down to. We couldn’t even sweep hay to the cows until we heard “This is Paul Harvey,, good day”. Somewhere there’s one of those discussions going on “remember your story about”! Yes his greatest fans indeed.