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Nostalgia trip
Tuesday, 10th May 2011 20:50 PM
It was a busy weekend, I taught the marquetry taster on Saturday morning, then in the afternoon we want back to our house in Huddersfield, which we hope will be sold in the next month, to do some sorting prior to moving out. This included looking through my record and book collection with a view to reducing it a bit. It's strange, I haven't played any vinyl for over a year, my deck is pretty useless, so as a media it's probably not much use to me, but I am reluctant to let it go. I have similar but perhaps not such intense feelings about my books, mostly tatty paperbacks. I suppose the truth is that, being rather sentimetal, it's not the music but the memories that I don't want to let go.
For instance I have put Led Zeppelin I in the to go pile but not LZ 2. I can remember going to Stephen Hodkins house (he of the smelly feet and the bubble car) with Colin and Barry and Tony Wood, getting stoned listening to LZ 2 then going to Godwins chippy to laugh at the chips. How could I throw that one out. Mott the Hoople that was Barry's, I swapped it for a disappointing Steppenwolf LP I had bought after seing Easy Rider. I had to keep Ummaguma and Saucer Full of Secrets. Meddle, Echo and Dark Side of the Moon all went, they went down hill after Ummaguma!
The Brahms sonatas with Janos Starker, I bought that after a concert at the RAE in Farnborough with my girl friend Alison, later to become my wife. Here Come Christmas, we played that for the children every Christmas,"Greasy Joan doth keel the pot". I had to keep English Garland for the absurdly lewd Mole Catchers Song, first heard at the Hampshire Bowman. Ogden Nut Gone by the Faces had to stay even if just for it's ridiculously impractical round sleeve.
Of course I kept all the kraut rock, Can have been the soundtrack to my life, sad but true.
Books have a more subtle hold on my sentiments but they still resurrect memories. The collection of Evelyn Waugh I read during a lonely sandwich year in a bedsit in Manchester. George Orwell, the books and biographies, everyone reads (or used to) Orwell at school, but he is more than a set book. The Dancing Wuh Li Masters, bought while on our first holiday with our first born, Sarah. Lord of the Rings of course, I can remember being in tears reading the ending to Sarah (yes we did it in instalments as a bedtime story when she was about ten), said I was sentimental!
Anyway this is getting silly. The books are going to the Oxfam shop. I'll probably let Jason have a look through the records, he's into retro vinyl, then they will be off to Oxfam.
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Some of the discards
Comments…Add yours
Posted by Jason on 14/05/11
...and Jason took them all. Isn't it nice that they have been passed on to another young couple, and will inspire more nostalgia in the future...
May the memories live on man!
Posted by Chris on 15/05/11
Far out Man.
Posted by Jon on 01/06/11
Bloody Hippie's....
Posted by chris on 01/06/11
One of the albums I kept was the Yes Album. I remember you were a big fan of Yes. Of course not many people admit top being Prog Rock fans nowadays!
Posted by Linda on 28/06/11
Can't help it Chris - I love your blogs, but the photo 'Some of the discards' includes the Yes Album, which you say in a comment you kept... I'm an eagle-eyed, Yes-loving editor, what can I say :-)