I was talking to one of the new employees in my section and he mentioned that he was a collector of vinyl records. That got me thinking…
As a child, my record collection was probably my most precious possession. I could listen to the same record over and over again (and I did). One year, for Christmas, my parents got me a record player. I’m guessing they didn’t want me on the family stereo all the time. I certainly put it to good use.
Most of my records were of the storytelling variety. This was back before the age of videotape and DVDs. My records were my form of escapism. I wasn’t a very outgoing kid and I didn’t have many friends, so I made my records my friends. Danny Kaye was always available to tell me stories of Clever Gretel and Rumpelstiltskin (I found mp3s of that particular record a few years back, and it was every bit as magical as it was back when I was a kid. He was great!)
Tubby the Tuba was probably my least favorite record, but even that record I listened to over and over again. I couldn’t get enough. Before I discovered Star Wars action figures my allowance would always be earmarked for a new Disney book and record set. They were almost exclusively in French, because the local K-Mart didn’t stock any English ones, except for this one time where I found The Fox and the Hound. The record turned out to be warped which was disappointing, but I never considered returning it, because it was such a rarity to find them in English.
I would borrow records from our classroom library at school and from friends. One summer, my teacher let me borrow this record set of Bible stories and it was just about the best thing ever. I was first introduced to the Fantastic Four through a book and record set a friend lent me.
I have a great memory of finding a book and record set of He’s Your Dog, Charlie Brown (in English no less). in a garage sale for something like 50 cents The sun was shining but there was rain as I walked home to listen to it for the first time. The first time I ever drew Snoopy was from that album. It was that drawing that made me realize I had a tiny bit of talent in copying other drawings. I may be exaggerating a little, but I’d say that record is in some small part responsible for this site. I still remember that feeling of dread when I accidentally sat on the record as it lay on my bed. Unlike some of my other records which got cracked through some mishap or another but were still playable, this one broke. For years whenever I would see a bin of used records in a flea market or something I imagined how cool it would be to find that record again. Two years ago, after a little hinting, I got the record for Christmas courtesy of online shopping (thanks Fab!)
To this day, I still love Disco Mickey Mouse and Sesame Street Fever, records my friend Richard lent me once. When I saw they were available on iTunes, I couldn’t resist buying them so I can listen to them again.
I saw Disney’s The Jungle Book for the first time in 1993, but I knew the whole movie by heart already from my record.
As happens with kids who grow up, I let go of things that I now regret. I don’t even remember what happened to all those book and record sets. I still have a number of the records down in the basement even though the books are long gone. This winter I found a Fisher Price record player at the flea market for 8 dollars. I keep telling myself I need to go rooting around to find what’s left of my records and give them a listen. I’ll probably still be able to recite the stories along with some of them.
*UPDATE* So I finally went downstairs to dig up my records…Boy are they beat up! Sadly, it would appear there’s something wrong with the record player because I can’t hear anything distinguishable on it. I thought it might be the records themselves, but I put on some clean records and still nothing.