vinyl lives!

When mom was preparing to move to her apartment she wasn’t sure there’d be room for her stereo cabinet. As it turned out there was a perfect space for it, and though she did pare down her album collection she maintained some favorites, of hers AND ours! Among my requests of records she would keep were several Christmas albums from different countries: France, Italy and Sweden. They weren’t just familiar carols sung in other languages (although some were that), but tunes that were distinctive to that country. One of the Swedish carols has a very festive rhythm and mood. Though we never understood the words, when we were children we couldn’t resist dancing to it. It continues to be one of my favorites.

There were others that, when flipping through the album covers, brought back other memories of times from childhood, and even images of where I would sit to listen to the music. For some reason, I liked to tuck myself in on the floor next to where the stereo was kept, creating a private space where the music and I could share our own special world. (It didn’t hurt that the radiator was also nearby on chilly winter days when I loved to listen to the Nutcracker Suite.) Powerful stuff, music.

I have my own collection of albums with which I can’t bring myself to part, but unlike Mom, the turntable is long gone. Perhaps one day I’ll replace them with available CD’s, but there’s something about holding that square of cardboard with liner notes easily read on the back that can’t be replaced by that small square of plastic that now contains our musical world. Ah, vinyl…