Getting Nostalgic

"So...the needle plays from the outside in, right?"
That was the question DN1 asked me when she was going to put a record on the turntable.
Thus began our cultrual literacy lesson on Saturday night.
For months, actually years, I have been wanting DH to set up his turntable so we could just listen to records. We have so many that we have been toting around for years.
Okay, decades, really.
Saturday night we finally did it.
DH finally set up his turntable, and was actually shocked to see the sales slip inside the box: he had bought it 20 years ago.
How time flies.
That's right about the time we stopped buying records and started buying CDs.


When DN2 saw the turntable she was so excited she wanted to cry.
She said, "You set up the record player?!?!"
It was really cute, the way that neither girl had ever used a turntable before, much less knew where and how to put the needle on the record.
Finally something where my knowledge was relevant rather than nostalgic.
And we had so much fun.
What was even more better was going through some of our several boxes of records up in the attic - I forgot how much music we had.
I pulled this out for DH (well I like her too):


Good old Shirley Murdock.
Do you remember the scandal when a man impersonated her in D.C. for a while in the '80s, and was running up bills in her name?
If I could find a news article about it I would reference it.
Then I pulled out something from my childhood:


(Yes, Ken, I have this album, and the other Royal Guardsman album. Mom gave them to me so go complain to her.)
DH and DN1 could not understand why I love this album, but I think it's great stuff!
Guess it's just too different for their taste.
DN1 wanted to hear some Beatles records, and later on, with beers in hand, we all chilled and listened to Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here:


We spent the time perusing the album cover and sleeve, and DN1 made this observation:
"I have totally missed out on album art."
She's right, the pictures on CDs do not match up with the artwork that was on albums.
There was usually a message in there, and if not, then album art contained another type of creative forum for the artist and the record company.
Her generation has also missed out on 45s, stacking records so the next one comes down for continuous play, and taping a penny to the arm so the needle doesn't skip.
I used to think my grandmother's Victrola was old-fashioned, but just think, listening to records is now considered nostalgic.
Who knew it would hit my generation so soon.