On Christmas Eve after our worship service at Legacy, we traveled across town to Kim's mother's home in Lake Highlands. While we were opening our gifts, her 16-year-old television went dead. Nothing we did got it going again. So, she'll get a new television for Christmas this year!In order to make room for the new TV, we had to clean out the space where her "stereo system" and current "big screen" TV sat. We started by cleaning out the VHS tapes and cassette tapes from the stereo cabinet. Summer, our 22-year-old became fascinated with the turntable and black, vinyl disks that we found there. For the rest of the day we played "records," and "LPs" of Glenn Miller, John Denver, The Association, and the Sound of Music. The scratching sound in the speakers added to the nostalgia of it all. Summer was amazed her grandmother knew all the words to such old songs like Chattanooga Choo Choo, Stardust, and Moonlight Serenade.
In the middle of our discoveries, Kim's mother, told us to go to the entry way and look at the wind up phonograph there. It worked! It is a Brunswick non-electric, phonograph that played 78 rpm records. She had a couple of collections (that weighed what seemed to be 20lbs!), and we listened to the Fox Trot and vocalists than sounded like a sound track from a 1945 movie. Amazing. Summer called her bf and played it for him over her iPhone. Now, there's a contrast in technology.
We ate our Christmas lunch with the music of a 1963 Singer Sewing Machine Company Christmas album in the background. Kim's father sold Singer sewing machines for 30 years. Very nice.
We are headed out to purchase one of those fancy flat screen televisions for her today, but we will always remember the Christmas discovery of 2008, and the memories it brought to us.
What's sitting dusty in your home that holds decades of memories for you and your family?
PS We saw "Marley and Me" on Christmas Day. A tear-jerker if you have a pet. Anistan and Wilson do a great job. Believable and warm. Made us want another lab...until the tears dried up.