The Pleasures of Old Vinyl
I own somewhere between 250 and 300 45rpm records dating from the early 1970's to the mid 1980's.
It's quite the collection. There's Aerosmith's "Dream On" (in ubiquitous use on TV ads). "Let's Live for Today" by the Grass Rootsand "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" from Tears for Fears. A red vinyl "Too Hot to Handle" by UFO, six blue-vinly Police singles in a special fold-out pack, and an Elvis Costello picture disk for "New Amsterdam." There's Steve Miller's "The Joker," "Killer Queen" by Queen, and the Sweet's "Ballroom Blitz." Bachman-Turner Overdrive's "You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet," Golden Earring's "Radar Love" and "Hooked on a Feeling" by Blue Swede (oogahchuka-oogachuka-oogachuka). Culture Club's "Time (Clock of the Heart)" (which I can sing beautifully and in perfect key) Wham's "Bad Boys," Henry Badowski's "My Face," Falco's "Der Kommissar" and Dead Or Alive's "Brand New Lover" (with a barcode). There's "Let's Spend the Night Together," "Go Now," "A Whiter Shade of Pale," and "Theme from A Summer Place."
It is everything from the age of 12 to the age of 28. Sixteen years, give or take a few and an allowance for some "oldies but goodies" added to the collection way after their chart dates.
Dancing around my kitchen to "Hooked on a Feeling," I find myself magically in my 12 year old body....with all those dreams of being a writer and of being in love and of romance--dreams of how wonderful it will be to be an adult and on my own.
There's alot of daydreams and life and memories in all that vinyl. Lots of broken hearts. But alot more started and never-completed short stories, novels and essays. The music was always the soundtrack to the movie versions. Or fueled the character's emotions, Or described the settings in which they moved.
I am thinking alot about what hasn't been accomplished, and what is still possible. I am thinking alot of my mother's thwarted career as a milliner...how she couldn't attend art school or nursing school. How my godmother had a partial scholarship to design school in New York but couldn't go because there was no money and married instead. How most of the women in my large, matriarchal family spent their lives funnelling their dreams thru their husbands or male children and how none of the women have done anything other than marry and have children.
Some, even of the new generation, never even completed high school.
And here I am, on my own, in my own apartment, with my big fancy-assed degree, free of children and of husbands...even free of cats. With at least another 25 years of productive living in front of me.
And I'm cleaning my desk because the time has come to stop farting around and take myself seriously as a writer.
I slip David Essex on the turntable and "Rock On"....
Life
It's quite the collection. There's Aerosmith's "Dream On" (in ubiquitous use on TV ads). "Let's Live for Today" by the Grass Rootsand "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" from Tears for Fears. A red vinyl "Too Hot to Handle" by UFO, six blue-vinly Police singles in a special fold-out pack, and an Elvis Costello picture disk for "New Amsterdam." There's Steve Miller's "The Joker," "Killer Queen" by Queen, and the Sweet's "Ballroom Blitz." Bachman-Turner Overdrive's "You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet," Golden Earring's "Radar Love" and "Hooked on a Feeling" by Blue Swede (oogahchuka-oogachuka-oogachuka). Culture Club's "Time (Clock of the Heart)" (which I can sing beautifully and in perfect key) Wham's "Bad Boys," Henry Badowski's "My Face," Falco's "Der Kommissar" and Dead Or Alive's "Brand New Lover" (with a barcode). There's "Let's Spend the Night Together," "Go Now," "A Whiter Shade of Pale," and "Theme from A Summer Place."
It is everything from the age of 12 to the age of 28. Sixteen years, give or take a few and an allowance for some "oldies but goodies" added to the collection way after their chart dates.
Dancing around my kitchen to "Hooked on a Feeling," I find myself magically in my 12 year old body....with all those dreams of being a writer and of being in love and of romance--dreams of how wonderful it will be to be an adult and on my own.
There's alot of daydreams and life and memories in all that vinyl. Lots of broken hearts. But alot more started and never-completed short stories, novels and essays. The music was always the soundtrack to the movie versions. Or fueled the character's emotions, Or described the settings in which they moved.
I am thinking alot about what hasn't been accomplished, and what is still possible. I am thinking alot of my mother's thwarted career as a milliner...how she couldn't attend art school or nursing school. How my godmother had a partial scholarship to design school in New York but couldn't go because there was no money and married instead. How most of the women in my large, matriarchal family spent their lives funnelling their dreams thru their husbands or male children and how none of the women have done anything other than marry and have children.
Some, even of the new generation, never even completed high school.
And here I am, on my own, in my own apartment, with my big fancy-assed degree, free of children and of husbands...even free of cats. With at least another 25 years of productive living in front of me.
And I'm cleaning my desk because the time has come to stop farting around and take myself seriously as a writer.
I slip David Essex on the turntable and "Rock On"....
Life
posted by Tish Grier at 8:41 PM
2 Comments:
You go, Tish! I wrote my first novel at 35, never having written so much as a short story since high school. Since then I've finished 3 more. No sales yet for me, but a lot of satisfaction in the process. You've set and met a lot of tough goals for yourself already - you can do this one, too. One day, one page at a time.
For some strange reason I feel more comfortable with tough goals than easy ones. Perhaps I'm masochistic ;-)
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