The Vinyl Vault of Memories

We must have 200 vinyl albums in storage. I don't think we even own a phonograph (how old does that word sound?) anymore. I keep thinking I should find a record player and drag the records home. Dance to the now "oldies" in our stocking feet. Certain songs are like time machines, right? They transport us back in time to high school, college, old girlfriends, old jobs.

I can see my thirty-something mom and her girlfriend dancing to Aretha Franklin in our living room. Incense Peppermints by Strawberry Alarm Clock and I am driving in my grown-up older brother's Peugot with him to his apartment. Evergreen by Babs Streisand makes me think of my old girlfriend, she must have dragged me to that movie (A Star is Born) three times or more. We May Never Pass This Way Again by Seals and Crofts and I am walking to get my high school diploma. Lionel Richie's Endless Love has been an invitation to slow dance with Susan since we were wed (it's our song). When my older son was just in his high chair he rocked back and forth to Huey Lewis and the News. When I hear George Winston I am driving with Susan in Yosemite. The list goes on and on.

This music is like a touchstone . Certain songs make me feel certain ways.  Sometimes it is not a memory but an emotion. Some make me happy (High in the Middle by Honk), some sad (Dreaming Road - Mary Chapin Carpenter), some get me hot (I Feel Love - Donna Summer), some make me feel relaxed (anything by Earl Klugh). And it's not just me; for a chunk of our marriage I knew Susan was mad at me if she played Carly Simon's Coming Around Again!

I have enjoyed picking out some of my favorites on iTunes and re-living some of the exuberance these songs generate. Still, you can't find everything there. Some obscure music on some obscure label from the last century may not be represented. It's nice to know I still have the album though for safekeeping.

My younger son was with me in the car once recently, we were listening to an old music cassette and he commented that albums and even cassettes have a "rich" sound compared to MP3s. Sure you get the hisses, pops and scratches in vinyl but what he heard was something else, something deeper. I couldn't tell the difference but because he works a lot with sound he "hears" it. One thing is certain, the music in our lives registers and resonates somewhere much deeper than our ears.

Which song takes you back?

Tim Bulone is an ardent observer of life on the swirling blue marble. He works at Davis Group Consulting and creates fine art and canvas prints which he likes to sell from time to time at http://www.MyFamilyArt.com He is an early morning pedestrian in Belmont Shore, where he resides with his wife and a variety of consistently hungry pets.