A Scratch on The Record

Most of the folks that venture to this blog are old enough to remember records and record players.  Gene is a collector of sorts for these items.  He has his Grandpa Adcock's second hand Victrola crank record player that is full of 75+ year old records. The Victrola holds a place of distinction in our home.  You see it as one of the first items when you step into our home.  A second portable record player that is, also, a crank driven turntable is on the bookshelf in the living room.

In addition to the 2 antique players, Gene has a 1966 Sylvania portable stereo record player.  A turntable from the age of component systems in the 1980's is set up in his office.  That 80's turntable is used to capture music that he converts to digital format.  Gene will spend hours removing the scratch and dust crackles from the music.  We still have several albums from before we married to in the early 80's.  That is when tapes pretty much replaced the vinyl of our youth and young married life.

It seemed no matter how careful we were with the records there would be scratches on many of the records.  Nothing like having the records at a party and be really dancing to the sound only to have the needle malfunction at a scratched groove.  The needle could either skip a groove, slide all the way across the record or repeat the last groove endlessly.

Someone would go to the record player and move the needle to the next groove or next song.  You "young timers" would not know about the need to tape a penny on the needle arm.  The extra weight could overcome "needle bounce" caused by the damaged groove.  Or you might need to remove a wad of dust that had collected on the end of the needle.  Guess you could say so much for dusting off a few memories during today's walk down memory lane.

Yesterday was another busy day here for us.  I had physical therapy, then errands and back home.  It was my first time to drive myself alone since the knee replacement.  After several busy days in a row, I found myself wanting to just be lateral most of yesterday afternoon and into the evening.  After sleeping for probably 3 or 4 hours in the afternoon and evening, I slept all night long, too.  Gene was and is still being very busy with his confirmation activities.  We decided that I should not attempt to go out again this evening with him since we spent most of the day visiting Edna.

2011 Mother's Day treat for Edna

Edna was doing really good today.  She was so happy to see us.  Her ankles were not swollen as they were in February.  While she had never been very talkative, she did seem a little more quite.  She asked if she had always lived in that room since the move.  We explained that she and Dad had an apartment when they first moved to the Manor.  She was foggy on that memory but remembered in detail how Carl had a shower in the basement of the Aurora home place.  "He sure liked having that shower down there," she said.

Edna did take a tumble during the early morning on Thursday of this week.  She had slipped in some fluid on the floor.  This is the second slip in the last few weeks.  The first was during the last hospital stay.  Since I grew up down south I just have to say, "Bless her heart."

While sitting at the lunch table today we noticed that Edna had a small container of salad dressing that she emptied onto her salad.  She sat the container aside and began eating.  Because we had eaten breakfast just before leaving for Marionville, we did not want any food while she was eating.  This really bothered her.  She just kept trying to get us to take her food.  Gene finally ordered a cup of coffee and that seemed to help satisfy her need for us to have something.

But she just could not quit picking up the dressing container.  Pick it up, open the cover, try to pour out more dressing, fold down the cover and set aside.  We watched this ritual about 4 or 5 times.  Gene finally set the container out of her line of vision.  You know, sort of like that person that would go to the record player and move the needle off the scratch on the record.

May we all celebrate new beginnings on Resurrection Sunday.