Summer Vacation and Belt Quiz Q&Q: The Days I Longed for a Radio-Cassette-TV

I think it was around the time I was in fourth grade.

During summer vacation, I often chatted with Sato-chan from the neighborhood before radio calisthenics.
There was a round concrete structure surrounding a sewer manhole next to our meeting spot. Sitting there was our usual routine.

That day, Sato-chan suddenly asked,
"Hey, do you watch 'Belt Quiz Q&Q' that's on at noon?"

"Huh, what's that?"
I had no idea what she was talking about.

Then, Sato-chan's eyes lit up as she explained it to me.
"It's a quiz show. They have a summer vacation kids' tournament where kids our age answer quiz questions!"

Wow. So a show like that exists.
Back then, my family didn't really let me watch anything other than NHK, butsurely it would be okay to watch it during summer vacation.Thinking that, I decided to watch it at noon right away.

The host was Shinobu Oshizaka.
Elementary school students were actually there, confidently taking on the quiz challenges.
Looking back now, it was a very precious "viewer-participation quiz show."

When a contestant who made it through won the final question, they would receive a telescope or a "Radio-Cassette-TV" (a home appliance that combined a radio, television, and cassette deck).
This "Radio-Cassette-TV" was just so appealing.

Back then, it was standard for a family to have only one television.
So, having a television all to myself was a dream within a dream.
If I got a Radio-Cassette-TV, even if the screen was small,I could have the TV all to myself.
Plus, it looked like a spy gadget, which was incredibly cool!

And the quiz questions actually seemed pretty easy.
"Could I go on the show too?"
(...Though I feel like if I actually went on, I wouldn't be able to answer anything at all.)

And so, my delusions grew and grew.
It would be embarrassing to be on TV. But it also looked fun.
Wait, would it cost money to travel to Tokyo?
Would my family be against it?

Just imagining "what if I went on" was fun enough.

In the end, I never appeared on the show, but
even now, I still think,
I wish I could have tried going on it just once.