Young, Rich, and Handsome

This is a memory I have of Dad and Mom. When I had just entered into the teen years, I developed an interest in radio communications and I always wanted a walkie-talkie or a CB radio. Dad knew that CB was not for me and thought a "real" radio was what I should have. Maybe it was because Grandpa Waelde had an amateur radio, or maybe it was because of the kind of people Dad knew on CB, but Dad would never buy me a CB no matter how much I prodded. Finally, he talked to Ray McDonald about helping me get into the hobby. Ray introduced me to Harry Tuttle and soon I was on my way to pursuing a "ham" radio license.

I studied and finally took the exam for my license in the summer of '67 when I was 14 years old. I remember Dad driving me to the Federal Building in downtown Detroit on a Saturday to take my test. Then after that came the waiting. Back in those days, an applicant did not know if they passed or failed the test until something arrived in the mail, sort of a thumbs up or thumbs down kind of thing. Literally every day after I took the test I would anxiously check the mail box to see if anything had come from the FCC. If Mom was first to check the mail, she would always look for my license.

Sure enough, the day it finally came, Mom found it in the mail. I nervously opened it to find that I had passed the test and got my new callsign: WN8YRH. Mom took one look at it and with no hesitation said, "Hmm, Y-R-H, Young, Rich, and Handsome". I liked the slogan so much I had it printed on my QSL cards. It is shown just below the letters YRH in the picture above. And forever after that until the day he died, Harry Tuttle would greet me with, "So how is Mr. Young, Rich, and Handsome?". Thanks to Mom for the slogan, I never would have thought of it myself.