Remember them?  Now they’re called vinyl, but they were just records before they shrunk and evolved into CDs.  I’ve never gotten used to CDs, there is something cold and sterile about them.  Stick them in a slot and they disappear into a machine, not to be seen until you eject them.  They’re great for cars; records tend to skip when you hit speed bumps and potholes.  But inside a home, they’re just not the same as a record.

There was something almost magical about records.  You could save up and ride a bike down to the store and buy one for less than $4.00. When you got it home, you found that some had posters inside and some folded open.  Blue Cheer had one that folded open three ways!  Unlike CDs, you could watch a record spin and the tone arm slowly approach the end, where it would lift up and return to its rest.  You could see which tracks were longer, and how far along the song was by where the arm was at any given time.

When I was young, 33 1/3 RPM records were fairly new and they were still pressing some 78 RPMs.  Phonographs had four speeds:  16 2/3, 33 1/3, 45 (the ones with big holes), and 78.  I’ve never seen a 16 2/3 RPM record, supposedly they were developed for Chryslers.  It must not have caught on.

As a kid, I was entranced by a jukebox that played a 45 RPM record sideways.  I couldn’t understand how that worked, and still don’t.  You put a coin in, pressed a large (by today’s standards) button, and the turntable slid to the correct record on a rack.  Smoething moved the record onto the sideways turntable.  When it was done, the record was moved back.  Incredible.  Stuff just isn’t cool anymore.