i’ve mentioned i’m a pack rat. and, despite high hopes at the time i moved in, i haven’t made a dramatic dent in the amount of crap important and valuable life memories i have.
but i still try.
sitting in the garage, for example, are some six boxes of old vinyl records…the LPs. do i own a turntable? nope. when i did, pre-divorce, did i listen to these records over and over? rarely.
yet, still, i cling to them.
but, finally, i decided to dip my toes in the world of purging. having passed, for the umpteenth time, a record store in our town’s hippie district that boldy announced – –
“We Buy Records”
…i finally decided to let go.
i picked out the closest box. i went through the albums. yes, some were not in the best of shape, but there were many there. i had high hopes of
(a) getting some whisky money out of them
(b) clearing out space in my garage so i can better organize what i do use
(c) there is no (c), and
(d) perhaps feel good about the likelihood that my old records will make someone else very happy
hiking up my big boy pants, i strode into the store with the box and the clerk began to look through the 50-some records in there.
and he kept looking without stopping… okay, now he stopped at that one…and that one…and…that’s it?
five. he pulled out five of the fifty.
i’m not a good haggler, but still felt i was getting what i was going to get out of him when we agreed on $10…$8 for the five albums he wanted, plus a ‘gift’ of $2 for him to take the remainder off of my hands.
I was crestfallen. $10. that’s it.
now, these are not irreplaceable albums. i can get them on CD. or even iTunes, for most of them. but the fact that they were a part of me growing up. listening to some at a very young age because that’s what mom and dad played on the stereo. listening to others of my choice as i grew up and was capable of buying my own records.
none of them were playing when i lost my cherry and got laid the first time.* none of them were playing when i first heard the news about JFK.**
but they were part of who i am. some of my humor was based in those records. i learned to sing with some of those records.
and for all of that…the memories, the lessons, the learning…gone.
…for $10.
[deep sigh]
yeah, bill, me too
=-=-=-=-=
*i honestly couldn’t tell you what was playing then. i do vaguely recall the radio playing. but my focus seemed to be elsewhere. go figure.
**and i don’t remember what i was doing at all when the news of JFK broke. all i do remember from then was being very pissed that they interrupted my saturday morning cartoons so they could televise the funeral.
The Wilds of Ohio 