Vinyl

Over the years, I have moved my collection of records with me, even though I haven't had a stereo system for some years. The collection includes Classical (some from my parents collection), Jazz and a lot of LPs and EPs (remember them?) from the eighties. When I moved to G-town, they ended up on shelves in the basement gathering dust and probably mildew (emphasis on the "ew").  Yesterday, I was visiting a friend, KJ, who had recently purchased a small, inexpensive turntable, and I knew I had to have one!  Well, today, after work, I purchased it from a favourite, local store downtown.  The great thing about it is that it folds up into a mini suitcase, so is easy for transporting and setting up.

Ready to set up.

In action.

Once I got it home and set it up in the kitchen, I went down into the musty basement, moved some furniture around to get access to my records, and picked out a few for the inaugural run. The following, in order, are what I played…

They were a little warped in places, which gave them an interesting sound, but memories of vinyl flooded back, and CC and I had a great time listening to some oldies but goldies. On my second perusal of records to play, I found all my Classical records and even found a 78 I didn't know I had.  Luckily, the record player had a switch to enable playing 45, 33 or 78 rpm! The sound of a scratchy version of the Overture to the Flying Dutchman filled the house and made me wonder how long it had been since a needle had touched those grooves. Although the record was in a plain, brown wrapper, it was on the His Master's Voice label and was pressed in England. My dad, who recently moved, has promised me some of his old 78s that he bought in the 40's and 50's, and I can't wait to give them a spin.