I have one record in my collection that means a great deal to me because of the story behind it. I was buying 78s on eBay, and because of the shipping cost, it made more sense to ship batches of records, rather than individual disks. Whenever I bought a 78, I would always ask if the seller had more that they would sell me to fill out the box. I bought some nice Victor Red Seals of opera singers, and I asked the seller if he had more. He replied, Yes, but theyre kind of special to me. But I dont have a phonograph, so they should probably go to someone like you who will play them. He lived in the mountains in Northern California next door to a nursing home. There was an old German man who lived there, and he adopted the guy since he didnt have any family. They would visit and the old man would tell him stories about his life. When he was 20 years old after WWI, he emigrated to America. He came to the California gold country to become a miner. He had a cabin in the woods next to a stream and ran a sluice box panning for gold. He didnt make a great deal of money at it, but enough to get by. He lived in the cabin with no electricity or telephone until he was in his 80s, when the authorities discovered him living as a hermit and moved him into the nursing home. When he passed away, the nursing home contacted the neighbor and told him that the old man had told them to give him his belongings. He didnt have much. Basically a stack of old records and a suitcase phonograph that didnt work any more. This is what he would play at his cabin in the middle of the wilderness. He had thrown out the phonograph years before, but he still had the records. He put them in the box and shipped them to me. When I got them, I pulled out my suitcase Victrola and played the first record on the pile... It was Al Jolson on Brunswick in 1924 singing California Here I Come. As I listened, I pictured the old German gold miner all alone by lamplight in his cabin in the woods listening to this and I got teary eyed. I get that way every time I hear that record. https://youtube/watch?v=3uTWABRKRFM
Posted on: Sat, 24 Jan 2015 21:05:28 +0000
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