Probably some of you are not a bit interested in learning more than you already know about this old-time radio show. This is for those of us who are die-hard Lum and Abner fans and those who are only mildly interested.
I love collecting trivia about Lum and Abner and the other folks who inhabited the small town of Pine Ridge as I listen to episodes of this wonderful old show. This website is where I keep my collection of trivia and transcripts of episodes I find particularly hilarious.
Listening to the Radio
Lum and Abner has long been a favorite of many in my family. Early memories of the show date back to 1937, when Grandmother and Granddaddy were newlyweds and did not own a radio. They would walk a mile across the pasture every evening to listen in “on the goings-on in Pine Ridge” at her parents’ house. (Read my Grandmother’s account here.)
Many years later, in the late 1960s or early 1970s, when my younger uncles were teenagers, one of them was tuning across the radio late one evening and happened across the old hillbilly dialect… “Wait! Stop! That’s Lum and Abner!” Granddaddy told him. The uncles had never heard of Lum and Abner before, but after that night, they became regular listeners to the series being rebroadcast long after the originals had gone off the air. I was too little then to understand much about the story, other than these two old hillbillies had a store with a screen door that kept slamming.
I was twelve in 1978; the summer I got hooked on the series by listening to a handful of tapes that belonged to my uncles. In the mid-1980s, my family moved to Missouri, where Lum and Abner came on the radio at noon. When I got married and moved away, my mother tried recording episodes on the radio for me. I nearly wore the cassettes out listening to those few poorly-recorded episodes over and over. I was thrilled when the internet came along with the ability to download MP3 files, which gave me access to almost the entire series. Wonderful world!
