Rock
Hill,
South Carolina's
oldest still standing CB base antenna
Many CB'ers have come and gone over the years in Rock Hill, South Carolina, and their CB base antennas have come and gone with them......all except for one.
All the way back in 1975 a young teenage high school girl named Beth was working at the drive through at the local Hardees burger restarant on the "Cherry Road Dragstrip". Cherry Road was the main road the teenagers cruised up and down on Friday and Saturday nights in Rock Hill. Some of the local teenage CB'ers pulled up to the Hardees drive through with their mobile CB radio, and Beth asked what the antenna and two way radio was for. They told her about CB radio, and how they could talk to their friends around town. Beth became interested in this "new" technology and decided to get a CB radio of her own. She saved up her money and with the help of one of the CB'ers she met at the drive through she purchased a Pearce Simpson Lynx 23 channel base, a Turner +2 amplified desk mic, and a 1/4 wave drooper ground plane. Her CB handle was Sunflower.
I remember listening to Sunflower on my three channel 100 milliwatt Realistic TRC-27 walkie talkie back in early 1976 when I was only twelve years old. Her voice was young and inviting to any teenage boys ears, and she was easy to talk to. My older brother said he went to high school with her, so as soon as I had a walkie talkie powerful enough to reach her I introduced myself as "Glenn's younger brother". Sunflower and I became CB friends, and I talked to her many times over the next few years. I saw her in person a few times out at the local Roll-a-Round skating rink. She was a nice looking young girl. As the years went by she used her CB less and less, and I imagine she eventually moved out and got married. The last time I remember talking to her on the CB was around 1979 or 1980.
Many years later I was driving through her old neighborhood when something caught my eye. Mounted on the back of an old wooden garage was Sunflower's old drooper ground plane antenna. After almost four decades it was still standing where she left it. The house had a "For Rent" sign in front of it, but the antenna still stood intact. So for all those nostagic CB'ers out there I present Sunflower's 1975 1/4 wave drooper ground plane still mounted in it's original position even after almost four decades. As far as I know this is the oldest still standing CB base antenna in Rock Hill, South Carolina. It appears to be made out of four 102" steel whips which is probably why it outlasted all the other aluminum tubing and fiberglass CB base antennas. I wonder if it still works, and I wonder what ever became of my CB friend Sunflower?
Sunflower's
1975 drooper ground plane
July 2014
Click the picture for the uncropped high-res photo
July 2014
Click the picture for the uncropped high-res photo
