By Ann von Dehsen, May 21, 2020 — When my daughter Kerry was about 9 or 10 years old we used to listen to a show on the radio called Kids’ Corner. It’s on XPN, it was a great show hosted by a woman named Kathy O’Connell. She played really cool songs for the kids but also for the grown-ups. I used to listen too.
And then she had people on from museums to talk about science things. There was a guy that came on to talk about the weather. But she would also have a general question that kids could call in to answer. I say “general” because it was an open-ended question. Things like: What do you like best in school, or how are you going to spend your vacation? And so, kids could call in.
Well, about every night Kerry tried to call in, but back then everybody tried to call in so she’d get a busy signal.
Finally, one night she connected and they screen the kids first. The guy told her “Okay, that’s fine, you’ll be on soon.” Well, unfortunately, time ran out, the show was over, and they didn’t get to Kerry. A few minutes later the phone rang and it was Kathy O’Connell talking to Kerry saying “I’m so sorry,” and then she was asking her things like, “Where do you live?” and “Where do you go to school?” and she was so, so nice. And she also sent Kerry a t-shirt.
So, skip forward 30 years, Kerry‘s now 40 and she and her son Max had started listening to it. one night last week I get an urgent FaceTime from my grandson Max. “Nana, Nana, guess what I was just on Kids’ Corner!” He got on. And the question was, “What have you missed most during this lockdown?” And Max’s answer was camping, and she asked him what he missed most [about camping] and he answered, “Making s’mores and listening to the animals,” So, he was all excited, and so was I.
I said to Kerry, “Why didn’t you tell me that he was going to be on?” And she said, “Because it was so quick, he connected, and they put him on right that second.” I was excited too, but I thought, I would love to hear it. So, I looked up their website and I wrote to Kathy O’Connell and Robert Drake, the producer, and I just told them the whole story in an email about Kerry listening 30 years ago and then I said, “But I’m very sad I missed it and wondered if I could get a recording.”
I wasn’t sure if I’d hear back. The next morning, real early, I get an email from Robert Drake, the producer saying, “Oh my God, we just love, love, love your story, this is great!” He said, “I sent your email out to everybody that works on the show”, and he said, “We’re going to try to see If we can get the recording.” I was like “thank you,” but I didn’t expect anything else.
The next day I get an email from Zac, who is the head of Public Relations for Kids’ Corner, and he wants to know if he can use my story for their fundraising. My point is, it’s [the] kind of power of the story. So, I said, “Yes, of course.” The next day he emailed me back saying, “Oh, and can we have a picture of the generations, you and your daughter and your grandson? We’ll hang it on our wall, or we might use it in other ways.” So, after talking to my daughter, who said yes, we said yes. This all just happened last week but it was something exciting.