Things I miss!

I was shopping with my wife out in the Colonial Park area this past weekend (locals will get it), and while I was sitting in the car (while she was in Dress Barn, and some other God-awful store)  I remembered a place that used to be called Media-Play that was just around the corner!  Wow...I used to spend HOURS in that place!   I’d walk in…go to the CD section, and start at “A”, and start looking at what CD’s were there, and stop when I’d reach my “allotted price amount”…although I’d also hit a few letters for bands that I was always in the market for, like Rush, Yes, Zappa…bands that I’d collect anything and everything!  (trust me…if something in those bands was released that I didn’t know about, or an odd import I didn’t have, I’d put something back)

That reminded me of when I’d go shopping with my parents years back, and we’d go to the Harrisburg East Mall...My mom would go in one direction, my father another, and I’d hit “Listening Booth”!  This was when LP’s were the big thing, and cassettes were starting to become popular. (8-tracks were on the way out, and you could usually find them in the $1.00 bin at G.C. Murphy’s or Kresge’s (K-Mart’s predecessor))  Back then I’d do the same thing, but was usually limited to ONE album, mainly because I had no money, and my allowance was next to nothing.

Once I started working, and had my own car (ok, at FIRST,  I also worked AT the mall, so I knew where I was spending my lunch hour) I would go for HOURS and pick out things I wanted.  There was also a great place across the river (that had a “head shop” in the back) and would pore over the used LP’s as well, hoping that they didn’t skip when I played them.  Even if I didn’t’ buy anything, I’d still love the thrill of the hunt, and start at “A”.  The import bin was always a fun place to stop as well, because for some reason, some bands used to add extra tracks to their “foreign” releases!   Once I got a better job and spent recklessly, it was just open season, then when I got the CD player not long after they came out, I was like a looney on a day pass!   (I won’t even mention when I got the car that had the CD player in 1988!)

My CD collection is well above the 2,000+ mark, then once I got the burner, and started trading bootleg recordings, it even got worse! (I’d be willing to bet I have about 5,000+ recorded items)  I have copy paper boxes with spindles of bootleg concert CD-r’s that I may have listened to ONCE, but that doesn’t even count what’s on my hard drives of things that I’ll probably never listen to, but have “just in case!” But I digress… as I was sitting there and reminiscing about the CD/Record stores, I realized that they are few and far between these days!   I remember that on a good Saturday, you could hit 2-3 area malls, and a few other spots to look for music.  Now that I live in Hummelstown, I remember the place where the OLD K-mart used to be, next to where Arooga’s is now (in fact, I think what was the record store is now a Chinese Buffet) But there was a shop that was called Record Connection (it was something else prior, and something else right before it finally closed)  And they were famous for getting albums on their day of release.  They had a West Shore store that would get the shipment, and someone would drive them over at about 3-4:00pm, and there would be a line depending upon who had a release that day.  They were also famous for concert tickets since they had a Ticketmaster machine!  So there was a line out the door for that at 10:00am on any given Saturday.  The store that it turned into was also famous for selling “bootleg” concerts for several bands. I picked up a few Rush and Pink Floyd concerts of VERY good quality in that store.  But those don’t sell anymore because you can find everything online, at no charge at all (I could only imagine how much I would have spent if I had to pay for all of my “recordings of indeterminate origin”)

I really miss those days, it was a great to go to a store, hang out for a while, and listen to the music as you were “starting at A”. Now it seems that you can do anything online, and you have to anticipate when something is being released so you can purchase it.  One nice thing is that if you get in when it’s announced, you can get bonus items, or something that’s autographed by the band, but it does kill the thrill of the hunt!

That's part of the collection: