Record Party

As kids, my sisters and I used to dance on our parent's bed to the soundtrack of 'Annie' and children's albums like 'Puff the Magic Dragon'. Their room was filled with records. "Over a thousand", my dad told me when I asked how many. We did backward somersaults, catapulting ourselves with the help of the wall in front of us (the one lined with all the records). We sang along to the words as loud as we wanted. And after exhausting myself with elaborate dance moves that only a 7 year-old can think up (I can't speak for my sisters' dance moves), I would plop down and stare up, memorizing the images and words to the posters tacked to the ceiling. I don't know when I stopped dancing on their bed. But I do remember that even as a kid I knew I would never have more fun than that. I also knew that only kids could have that kind of fun.

These memories have led me to the following conclusions:

1) Jumping on beds (and couches) at my house is definitely allowed, if not encouraged. Preferably while singing "NO MORE MONKEYS JUMPING ON THE BED".

2) A record player is a must-have for childhood sparkle, magic, rainbow fun. I just don't think IPODS and CD players have the same zing to their thing, you know?

Poster #1: I always wondered if someone was going to come along and sit down.

Poster #2: We thought the girl in the middle looked like my sister Annie, and we thought the boy with the shorts on looked like my brother Joe. And we didn't know who the other kid was.

The good news is that we do have beds in our house for jumping on. And since buying a record player for myself Brent last year for Christmas we've started building up our collection. So far we have a mix of punk rock and Irish bands (Brent's picks) and some vintage awesomeness with my finds: Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Jackson Browne, Stevie Wonder, and Tracy Chapman (if you could call Chapman 'vintage' which I'm pretty sure you can't). But even with a record shop on every corner in Eugene, acquiring kid's records has not been so easy. Now that there's TWO kids in the house (and yes, Hope is already dancing) I'm eager to start finding some cool kid records. Or maybe I can walk the six blocks to my parent's house and rummage through those THOUSANDS(!) of records to find our old favs. Dust them off and start a dance party in my new living room.

In the meantime, check out my Goodwill SCORE below from the other day. 10 records for .99 cents! Is that a deal or is that a deal? I couldn't believe it. I kept asking the clerk, "Are these really .10 cents EACH????" And he was all, "No, they are .49 cents each but ten for .99 cents." Okay, that makes no sense but obviously ten was cheaper than three and I'm no good at math so who am I to argue? I made my choices based on (1) If I knew the singer, group, or the album (2) If I thought I SHOULD KNOW the singer, group, or the album (hello Glenn Miller Orchestra) or (3) If I liked the album cover. (That didn't work out so well, not naming names GIGI).

I'm going to go jump on my couch now to a little "Jesus Christ Superstar"