Time Travel

Do you recognize any of these? They are symbols of my past, my childhood back in the 70s. For all of you youngsters, they're called records. Old-fashioned, large CDs that played on a turntable. Just looking at these album covers brings back memories. I've kept a box of my old records in my basement because, being the sentimental person I am, I can't throw anything away. And, I've secretly hoped I would one day find a way to play them again.

My dad also has a bunch of old records; in fact, he has more than I do. And he's also somewhat sentimental about his things. So, while doing my Christmas shopping online last December, when I discovered this nifty little box that converts old vinyl records to the computer and CDs, I found the perfect Christmas present for my dad (and me too)!

We spent several weekends this past winter and spring sorting through records together, deciding which ones we wanted to add to our iTunes files or make CDs of, and then playing them on his old turntable with the converter box hooked up.

The only negative part is that it takes quite a bit of time. You have to listen to each record and push a button for each new song in order to have each song recorded separately. So someone needs to sit at the computer and listen to the entire record. That was part of my Christmas gift to my dad. I showed him how to work the converter, but his main job was to tell me which records he wanted, and I did the recording part. The bonus for me was that I converted my records in between doing his. It was also fun to hear these old records again and be instantly transported back in time - same feelings, same occasional scratches on the vinyl, now preserved in iTunes!

And when we finished converting, we actually got rid of the old records. Well, almost all of them. That's really hard to do, for savers like us. But my mom was very relieved. (I still have a small pile to work on during the summer.)

It was so much fun spending time with and reminiscing with my dad. We talked about various musical styles and why we liked them, we looked online to see what became of some of the old recording artists, and we recalled how certain songs reminded us of specific times in our life. I enjoyed spending this time with my dad and hearing about his childhood and teen years.