[78-L] The dream discs that start us collecting

[Steven C. Barr]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Andrea Walsh" <petquality1 at gmail.com>
> Hi everyone, I just wanted to pop in and give a link to my record post
> today, since it's pretty special to me.  I wrote about one of the records
> that I first heard and loved so much that it was one of the ones that got 
> me
> started in wanting to collect 78s, one of the dream discs we are all
> familiar with.
>
Actually, I got my first "dream disc" for free...a friend, for whom I worked
fixing old radios, asked me to sort out several thousand 78's he had bought
at an auction, on the terms that I could take any I wanted. I found and took
(not then knowing what they were...?!) BOTH of the Melotones issued by
"The Lang-Venuti All-Stars!" That was back before I moved to Canada, so
it must have been around 1974 or so. I wound up taking about 600 78's,
and later found more at thrift stores & antique stores (and flea markets,
which weren't then the purveyors of "Made In China" junk that they are
to-day...?!). When I moved to Toronto, I had about 1200 78's...which
also included my dad's records, which I had been allowed to play when
I was three or so (I was the only one in the family who wanted them!).

After I moved to Toronto, I found a local record dealer who sold 78's
cheaply (and on occasion STILL does!) and rapidly increased my
shellac archive (and I also found another local dealer who sold 78's
more expensively...and he took up with my wife...but that's a whole
nother story...?!). Then I discovered mail auction lists...and my archive
rapidly grew! And I'm still looking for large bunches of 78's for sale
CHEAPLY...! (and I own about 54,000 78's by now...?!)

In my own teen years, I was the officially-declared "school outcast"
of McLean-Waynesville High School (small-town life was like that);
at that time (c.1958-8) Jimmy Reed occasionally got onto the "Top
20" and could be heard on teen pop radio, so I developed a taste
for blues, especially if it included harmonica (which I taught myself
to play in 1967). I discovered WLAC (Nashville, Tenn.) which
became a "race music"station after sunset and thus played a LOT
of blues (this would have been 1959, IIRC...?!)

I also had a couple of LP's of vintage music, as well as my dad's 78's
(which I was still playing) and about 50 or so of my grandmother's...!

...stevenc