From Feathers To Weather
Mel Goldstein, the ever-enthusiastic meteorologist for WTNH News Channel 8, found his passion for meteorology early in life — but not before a stint as a door-to-door feather duster salesman.
He was 6 years old at the time, the offspring of generations of salesman, and he wanted to sell something in his neighborhood just north of Boston. His father could supply the merchandise; the family owned a manufacturing and distribution center, so they had access to a number of household items and tools. But a 6-year-old can’t exactly lug large objects down the street.
The solution: about half a dozen feather dusters.
“I sold out,” Goldstein said with another one of his frequent chuckles, “and I couldn’t wait to bring the money home and put it on the kitchen table and show my mother.”
Not many people stick with the job they find at age 6 — it would be like keeping your kindergarten-era lemonade stand open into your teens. But that’s pretty much what Goldstein did. He kept up door-to-door selling, using tools from his father’s factory, throughout high school.
He graduated from feather dusters to heavier items, such as paintbrushes, screwdrivers or electrical tape, and sold them to repair shops and other businesses along Massachusetts Avenue in Boston.
“I’d take a bag and fill it up, start on one end of Mass Ave. and walk until the bag was empty,” he said.
And usually, he got a good reception. A few would-be clients angrily shooed him out for various reasons, though. Some thought that his items must have been stolen because his prices were too low. Others didn’t like to see that some of the merchandise was made in Japan — in the decade after World War II, some people weren’t keen on using Japanese-made goods.
Other than that, it was great work, especially when Goldstein found a moment to talk about the weather.
Goldstein had always been a meteorology enthusiast, even starting a meteorology club in the 8th grade. Any customer who dropped a casual comment about the weather provided an opening for Goldstein to launch into his favorite subject.
But that was part of what he loved about the job — just talking with people of all stripes. It served him well in his future career as he gradually left the door-to-door work behind in favor of weather work full-time.
He’d done some work at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s WHATS lab in high school, and after finishing his education in 1970, he taught meteorology at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury.
One of his students there was a local radio announcer and asked Goldstein to do some weather on the air. “That opened up Pandora’s Box,” he said. He started announcing for a number of radio stations, one of which was owned by a man who also owned a TV station. He asked Goldstein to give TV a try, and that effectively launched Goldstein’s long-standing television career.
Goldstein didn’t have any formal broadcast training, but he said TV weather wasn’t so terribly different than teaching in front of a class. And his work in sales had given him more than enough of a foundation in talking and relating to people — so the transition to on-air talent wasn’t terribly difficult.
“It comes down to enjoy talking, being with people, whether you have a bag full of screwdrivers or a bag full of barometers or thermometers … there doesn’t seem to be a big difference,” he said.
MY FIRST DOLLAR
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