This Christmas the Grandsons will be getting a computer for Christmas. A Computer! I got my first real computer in 1998!
But in 1958 I wanted a record player, real bad. The old record player in our house would only play 78 rpm records, and with rock and roll hitting its stride, the hot item was a player that could play 45 rpm records! These were single vinyl records with an A side and a B side. The A side was the "hit". 45's sold for a dollar each and considering the cost of an itunes download was a bargain.
Anyhow I wanted a "real" record player. I dropped all the hints that a 10 year old could, and hoped for success. Christmas came to our house on December 15 and not a day sooner. We would go to the grocery store and looked through all the trees lining the walls near the entrance. Our family always got a 4 foot tall spruce tree. Once home we placed it in the little water-filled stand and set it on top of a large decorated cardboard box. This base raised the tree to near 5 foot six inches. After decorating was finished the long wait for the presents began.
Another of our family traditions was that Santa always came about 9 pm on Christmas Eve! Though none of us boys believed in Santa (me being youngest), we were sent back to our parents bedroom to wait while Santa delivered presents. Their room was used because it was the only bedroom with a door.
Our parents would say that Santa was there and we headed out to see the presents. As I located mine, I saw that none were large enough for a record player. I opened my gifts with as much excitement as I could muster but did a lousy job of not showing disappointment. When everyone finished viewing the gifts, my Mother said, "Mike, Are you going to open your last present?" I looked but saw nothing. My dad then walked over and lifted the tree off the decorated box and said, "Open This". There was a fantastic (gray with a pink front") RCA record player with an automatic changer and the ability to play 45 OR 33rpm records.
My first 45 was "Danny and the Juniors" song "At The Hop". Later would come Elvis, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Fats Domino. It was the biggest surprise ever!
Later, I realized that, because my bedroom had on electrical receptacle, that my brothers would have control. They had one receptacle near the door so that became its home. It was however my beginnings of music appreciation. Later in high school I essentially worked at the OTASCO store for free for a couple of months on Saturdays while I paid off my first stereo. It cost $75.00!
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