For the record - back to a record

by Tom Vartabedian

Published: Tuesday August 02, 2011

When this Corvette came out in 1958, Dwight Eisenhower was the U.S. president.

Haverhill, Mass. - You know what I did this morning?

I listened to music like it hasn't been played in a long, long time. I spun some platters and wallowed in nostalgia.

Yup, good old-fashioned music heard from a record player. It was so crisp and clear, someone in an adjoining room wondered where I got the CD. It had them fooled --- and me as well.

Why, you might think, am I resorting to ancient times when we have all this modern technology at our disposal? Well, let me tell you. The good, old days wouldn't be so old if more people practiced them.

You may have heard this song before concerning my record collection and how it met a hapless death when we moved from a spacious house into a condo five years ago. Yes, I did donate the bulk of them back to the library where many of them originated through sales.

But I did preserve a precious few that were quite sentimental to me, like my ethnic music and some favorite classical discs that have withstood the test of time. Last I heard, collectors are getting big bucks for records on e-bay.

I had no intention of ever playing my platters again, due to the absence of a machine. Until, fate intervened. I had made a trip to the dumpster and there, on the ground, laid this turntable, complete with a pair of speakers. I thought it was a mirage.

We looked at one another and if there was a voice, it would have uttered, "I've been waiting for you, friend. I've been evicted. Take me to a good home and I'll reward you."

It had an integrated stereo system with high speed dubbing, belt drive turntable, graphic equalizer, balanced sound and dual cassette deck.

Missing was a CD player which is why the owner probably heaved it. What were the odds that it would even be playable? All I could envision was my wife lambasting me for bringing home someone else's junk. Alas, sometimes another's junk turns into treasure.

Anyway, I carried it off and decided to give it a whirl. If it didn't work, what would I lose? Now, here's the tricky part. Like I did with so many records I had purchased, I hid the stereo system until it was safe to check out the components.

One isolated day, I brought it out of hiding and put it through the test. The sound blew me away. Those archaic cassette tapes were once again being activated and the records had found a new life, not to mention the FM radio that sounded like I was listening inside a studio.

The best part about all this is that it came free. Had I conducted a search of second-hand shops in my community, I probably would have come up empty. In some ways, the system came to me.

They tell me that vinyl is making a comeback, much like black-and-white photography. I have such a mode on my camera and sent out a striking lake scene. Had it been color, the impact would not have been the same.

A friend of mine would never part with his ‘58 Corvette convertible and just spent a king's ransom to get the car restored. He drives it on special occasions. He tells me he feels like a teenager behind the wheel with his wife in a bucket seat beside him.

Fond memories of the past take me back to the 1950s when disc jockeys showed up at my school and spun those platters at a record hop. Back then, you actually touched your dance partner, not keeping a distance. Thanks for the memories.

The world is moving too fast for me. I'm afraid that one of these days, we'll reach the absolute apocalypse --- and self-destruct. The future scares me when robots replace humans and space travel isn't light years away.

For once, I'd like to get an actual voice on the telephone and not some machine. The advent of cellular phones is turning us all into dolts. If you don't believe me, stand on a street corner and count the number of drivers with their phones glued to their ears while trying to navigate a car.

While the mutilation of a credit card is sinful, the mutilation of the human spirit is even more catastrophic. Our forefathers used to wait days for a stagecoach to arrive. Today, our patience wears thin if we miss one section of a revolving door.

Excuse me. Time to change the record. I've been listening to some Sammy Kaye and Dick Hyman playing such golden nuggets as "Stardust" and "Deep Purple."

It doesn't get any better than this!