Hi-Fi's I've know and loved.
And of course my Dad's mom (my
Grammy Carrie Wagner) was also a rock and roller. To this day I still can't believe her
joy of music. How many of you know a grandmother who not only says "KISS ALIVE
II" is pretty good (as long as it's not "too" loud), but also loves the
Jesus Christ Superstar Soundtrack? (NOTE: my gram has an expression "BACK
AGAINST",as in "you have the volume knob back against", or if you had the
burner too high while trying to cook something - "you have your fire on back
against", get it? Oddly, whenever someone calls me and I have the stereo on
"back against", I tell them I'm dusting - as in "blowing the dust out of my
speakers"!!! ) When my father was stationed in Korea during and just after the
Vietnam war, while on a leave in Japan, purchased a stereo and sent it home to my
grandmother. Gram also tells stories about the house rocking & rolling every morning
when my dad was still in high school. My father's parents used to live on a small farm on
the Isle of Q in Selinsgrove. My father along with his other two brothers and one sister
would walk to school each day. They of course had lots of neighbor kids to run around
with. By the time my dad was in high school, gram and pap Wagner moved from that farm to
the other side of the Penns Creek. So those same kids that all traveled together to school
each morning, would stop off at my dad's new home, to wait for everyone to get ready and
then continue off to school. Gram would feed everybody toast while someone always kept the
"hi-fi" playing rock and roll. The flood of 1972 took those wonderful six-racks
full of 45's and swept them out to sea. But I do remember artists like Elvis Presley, The
Everly Brothers, Ricky Nelson, Patsy Cline, Brenda Lee, Dean Martin, Bobby Vee, Peggy
March, The Supremes, The Beach Boys, Connie Francis, the Batman and Robin Soundtrack,
William Tell Overture (the theme from the Lone Ranger), just to name a few. I carried my
favorites everywhere I went. In some respects, I guess those old 7 inch discs of black
plastic were doomed from the moment they were first put into my care. Since I couldn't
read too good yet, and every Elvis RCA record label looked exactly alike, I came up with
all kinds of ways to keep track of my favorites. One thing I'd do was stack them in/on one
of my Gram's lampshades. If you look at old catalogs from the late 50's/early 60's you
know the kind of lamps I'm talking about. There was this golden "spindle" that
you screwed onto a post to hold the shade in place. So I'd stack my 45's on these spindles
in these lamps. And you can imagine the rest. Turn on the lamp with a 60 watt bulb, and in
a few minutes you could smell HOT WAX. I warped lots of records that way. And speaking of
spindles, every record player in our family had a broken one. I played with them too, and
dropped them once too often. Thank god for friendly door-to-door repairmen. I would go
through so many needles that whenever our repairman was responding to a call close by,
he'd automatically stop in to see if I needed a new needle. He said he never knew a kid my
age who was so obsessed with music the way I was. He thought sure I'd end up a DJ one day(Picture above - that's me infront of the Hi-Fi Dad shipped home to Gram. I was 5 in this picture and ready for kindergarten. You can just see the base of a lamp on the left, that was one of my hiding places for my 45's.)
.
After dad had gotten out of the
armed services, he and mom lived with my Grandparents for a few years until the other half
of the double house they were in came up for sale. My parents bought it and we moved next
door. Shortly after moving in, dad bought us our 1st stereo. I have to also mention here
that both the one he shipped to my gram from Japan and this new one had tube amplifiers.
So, the record player actually got warm the longer they played. And the warmer those tubes
got, the louder and better sounding they became. This second stereo could handle a stack
of 10 LPs or 45s. It had 6 speakers built-in and could handle several more pair which we
ran to the basement and out to the front porch. I did play DJ a lot in my childhood. One
time when a road contraction crew was fixing the highway infront of our house, I'd not
only sell them lemonade, but provide music around the clock. They'd tell me there
favorites and I'd do my best to supply the rock and roll. I also had several train and
trolley sound effects records that came in handy. My cousin Brian, my sister Candie
and I would line chairs up next to the stereo. The chairs were the trolley or train car
seats. I'd play the sound effects to make our pretend travels more realistic. (Note: In this picture you see my sister infront of my parents 1st stereo when they moved into their first home.)