Today I ran over to the local "high end" resale shop to see what they rolled out onto the floor after their annual BIG SALE that helps them get rid of the stuff that no one will buy under normal circumstances.
As I rounded the corner where the cheapy flatware and office equipment is staged, there before me was the most beautiful beefy young man that I could imagine - and he was hovering over an old blond wood RCA International hifi unit that was pristine. He must have sensed my aura, or my eyeballs drilling into the open cuts of hi tank top (where I spyed - as Mr. Peenee would say - nipples like gumdrops) either way he looked up at me quite quickly. I was so enraptured by his good looks, and those nipples were on my mind - that all I could say was "nice piece you got there."
Then I heard a groan. A thin woman, was seated behind him and was annoyed both at her weak signal and his caressing this record player. "Alec, can we go?"
The young man smiled and told her in a minute. "Do you know anything about this?" He seemed excited that anyone would know what it was or how it worked.
The record player? Sure. I explained that my parents had one like it.
"It's a really old stereo, right?" he asked in a way that made me realize that I was dealing with someone who had no idea what he had his hands on.
I briefly explained that it wasn't a stereo, but a hifi record player with an international band radio. High quality and pricey stuff in it's day - a true bargain at $300 considering it's condition - mint and intact. One thing, however confused him.
"What's this thing?" he asked holding up the 45 adapter. I exaplained that you slipped this over the mechanical spindle so you could stack up five or six records and that the record player would once the arm retracted automatically drop the next record and then play that next record, and then repeat the process.
"We used to stack up records so you had something like continous play."
Then he looked me in the eyes and said "You mean this thing is mechanical?" Oh, those are not the words that I had been longing for. I felt very very old.
After about 15 minutes "Alec" said that he thought that it was really neat and that he was going to buy it because - and get this - his GRANDFATHER had shelves of LPs ("I think they'ere a special kind of record") and it would be really cool to play them on this. Chelsea - his girlfriend - was too entranced by her texting to even notice what we were talking about.
I excuse myself and continued shopping. Taking in this whole store takes some time, so as I rounded my way out of their scratch and crap section in the back I saw Eric at the cashiers. He smiled and waived.
I imagine that at some point, Eric will invite his friends over to see his HiFi and I magine that they will marvel at it's neanderthal engineering and its mechanical ways. As he tells the world about the middle age man who took his hifi virginity from him and showed him a whole new world filled with tubes, spindals and something called stacking 45 singles upon his spindle.
And when he speaks about this, and I know that he will one day; Eric, please be kind.
Makes me feel less the antiquarian and more of a bringer of wonder,like a big brother showing his how a top works for the first time to his sibling and all the beautiful colors combining to create a work of art seemingly by his own hand.
ReplyDeleteRemind me to tell you my personal Snow White and the record player story sometime.
surprised you didn't come when he grasped the 45 adaptor.
ReplyDeleteYouth is wasted on the young, as are gumdrop nipples.
ReplyDeleteI smell youth...vintage youth
ReplyDeleteI, too, have been dropping "gumdrop nipples" into my conversations ever since Peenee's post.
ReplyDeletep.s. I have a Victrola. With 78s.