Vinyl are Great to Reminisce the Past

A few of my favorite albums to look at were The Beatles' Greatest Hits The Red Album 1962-1966, The Blue Album 1967-1970, and the Bee Gee's Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack, simply because I thought they looked ridiculous (this coming from a kid who at the time thought Brutus Beefcake and Jesse "The Body" Ventura were the epitome of cool.) I was also mesmerized by every other album in their vast collection ranging from Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw to Sinatra and Streisand. I'd also feel remiss if I left out the free Christmas albums they got from the gas stations.



Discovering music in this paleontological way was risky. What if I scratched one of their records? I'd feel terrible and they'd immediately know it was me since I was the only "hi-fi curious" one in the household. In subsequent visits to my parents record collection, which resided in a shelf under the stereo components, I made sure I was extra careful. Once I got the courage to actually put a record on the turntable, I placed the needle ever so gingerly onto the groove of the record. I may have had my first heart attack at that tender young age when I heard the record playing on the wrong speed. After my ears nearly bled, and I almost soiled myself, I was convinced that I ruined their pristine records. Seconds later, I figured out what the problem was.

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