The Forest - Records Books and Tapes
		Copyright © 5-12-2001 Greg Utrecht 

In 1962 my father bought a new Fisher stereo system so when the Beatles came 
out, we were ready.  Dad took us with him to pick up the stereo he had ordered, 
a Fisher tube amplifier and receiver, two floor speakers with four five inch 
speakers in each one, a phonographic turntable with record changer, and a pair 
of Koss stereophonic headphones.  Us kids did not know what stereo was.  

We got it home and hooked it up and found out that Dad liked listening to Mozart 
as if he had a baton in his hand, and also listening to Lester Flatt and Earl 
Scruggs which for him was toe tapping music.

The place we went to was down in Dayton, about an hours drive away because the 
freeway had not been built all the way through.  It was down near Main and 
Keowee, near the University, in a little electronics shop.  I have always 
thought that a stereo like that could not be found anywhere closer than 40 miles 
from home at that time.  

The Beatles came out, and Mom got us the record and we played it over and over 
again till we knew all the words and some of us could sing harmonies.  I played 
it the most because I'm a little obsessive, but all of us liked it: it was 
better than the Singing Nun, or the Firestone Christmas, or the comedy record 
about the First Family.  Mom even got me out of bed the night the Beatles were 
on Ed Sullivan.

I never saw that little electronics shop again, and by the time I was in high 
school you could buy a good stereo, even a tape recorder, in just about any 
little town at the store that also sold musical instruments.  

But one day we all drove down to Dayton to see the Charlie Chaplin movie called 
the Great Dictator.  This was before video tape players, it was everyones dream 
to be able to watch any movie at any time, especially Wizard of Oz, and my Dad 
had never had a chance to see the Chaplin movie, so we all went.

It was down on Brown Street at a movie theater that I think was called the 
Little Art Theater, and to get there we passed near Keowee and Main.  I remember 
that part.

I also remember the movie and that my Dad liked it.  After the movie we went two 
blocks down to a store that said, "The Forest, Records Books and Tapes" on the 
front.  Inside there were racks and racks of phonograph albums for sale, colored 
lighting that was dim, incense, and a parachute hanging on the ceiling.  None of 
us had ever seen anything like it, and we wandered around in the store looking 
at things like any minute the city was going to raid the place and make them 
stop burning incense, turn up the lights, and get rid of the parachute.