The folks are long gone but one of the legacies they left is a brown case filled with singles. The presence of these records is a mystery to me because I never remembered them buying records when I was a youth, although I think my father paid for my purchase of Downtown and Pepino the Italian Mouse.
Going through them I have moments of "what were they thinking?" along with trying to guess which parent bought which record. I also can't figure out where they bought them. Perhaps Frankie's Market? Perhaps my father bought them in Times Square when he missed the bus and had time to kill waiting for the next one. Hard to figure.
I always remember the folks as middle aged people who wouldn't tear through the house with a new record in their hands. Myrtis! I bought a real hot track today! Seems out of character for the old man.
I do remember my father playing records on Saturday morning. He had the job of giving breakfast to the kids. Mother had been working til 11PM the night before at the hospital. I remember waking up to "Wake up little Suzie" and "How much is that doggie in the window". It was a way of waking up the boys and a little treat that Mother slept through.
There were some country or at least country influenced records in the box. Pee Wee King did some square dances. Then there was Jimmie Rodgers and "Honeycomb". Roy Rogers was represented too.I suspect that was Mother's influence.
My parents hated rock and roll. Yet Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry are represented in the box. How mysterious.
Later in the box, children's records start to show up. There's Dennis Day reading Snow White and Davey Crockett. Must be the influence of my big brother when he was a tot.
