🍰✨

Every winter and summer break, it seems that I always rediscover the magic that is my old 1960’s-era record player. I purchased it at a flea market for $20 and it immediately ignited my love of record collecting and playing.

The first one I ever bought was Queen’s “A Night At The Opera”. My best friend at the time owned “A Day At The Races.” Some friends had friendship bracelets, we had matching vinyl records. I remember that her Rolling Stones collection was far more extensive than mine, but my Beatles collection well surpassed hers. 

I’ve bought records from thrift stores, hippie shops, and have also been given them as very generous gifts by my parents from their very own collections (which aren’t too shabby). Now, I am considering buying one (or a few) from Urban Outfitters. 

All of these records, plus a lot more are sold in stores and online. They aren’t cheap, but these are all great albums, and it might be worth the price to hear them played on a record player.

I also have to say, I had a mini-heart attack last winter when I thought that old thing had played its last song. For some reason, the needle was dragging really badly, making all the songs sound really horrible. I started looking for a replacement for it, but it was pretty depressing and so I gave up searching and put the record player away, telling myself that I’d deal with it later.

A few days ago, I pulled it out again, put on Billy Joel’s “Piano Man,” and the thing plays better than it ever has before. (The problem, I discovered, was that the needle and the record that I tried to play both were very dusty.) Now, it’s sitting in my new room at school, and it’s been playing nonstop since I’ve gotten here.

Can’t wait to start going record hunting again.