Playing Cards at the Thrift Store

 I took a personal day from work last week. I dropped Char off at UHS at 7:50, and then picked her up at 3:15. I went thrifting in between. 

    One of my goals for the day was to look for another CRT TV. I have the Emerson, but that has a 9" screen. It's mostly for display. I needed something slightly bigger if I was actually going to watch movies or play games on it. I didn't have high hopes of seeing anything, though. CRTs have become a popular collectable. 

    So, I was surprised to spot a CRT TV/ DVD combo at the Many Hands thrift store in West Des Moines. The Toshiba TV was under a bunch of stuff in a full shopping cart. My first thought was, Man, someone beat me to it! and I consoled myself that sometimes that is just the way it goes. I started walking away, but then a store volunteer began pushing the cart towards the electronics section. Wait! It isn't sold. It hasn't been even put on a shelf yet! 

    As the woman pulled a small flatscreen television from the top of the cart's pile, I asked, "Could I look at this one?"

    "Sure!" she replied when she turned around. "I just sent my friend a video of it working on the test bench in the back. She got a real kick out of it. If you want, we can take this to the back again, and you can test it for yourself."

        I agreed. She was really helpful, and she was right. The 13" TV was spotless, and it played her test DVD without a hiccup. Sold! I thanked her and carried the television to the register's counter. 

    

    The TV wasn't a steal at $70, but when compared to the CRT prices on Marketplace and Craigslist, the amount was pretty fair. Plus, the TV still had its original remote. That's pretty important if the any of the physical buttons on the TV fail. Also, the money goes to charity. So, I got that in my karma bank.

    I was happy that they had wrapped the remote in a plastic bag before taping it to the top of the television. Sometimes that packing tape is directly applied to the remote and you can damage the buttons when you remove it.

    Speaking of wrapping, a woman already at the counter was buying what looked to be a stack of 25 small photo frames. The cashier was chatting with her as she slowly wrapped each frame in it's own piece of brown paper. I could tell I was going to be standing there for awhile. 

    That's when another guy spotted the TV I was buying. 

    His eyes widened, and he tapped his wife's arm with the back of his hand. He nodded to her at my TV and walked over to where I was standing. 

    He leaned in to get a better look at the TV and then slowly said in a slightly southern accent, "My son lives in Nebraska and they don't have jack in the thrift stores over there." He then looked me in the eye as if he had made a point. 

    I nodded noncommittally. Sometimes people in thrift stores will start a conversation about what you are buying because they have a fun story to share. I could tell this wasn't going to be one of those situations.

    "Well, my son called me last week and told me I should be on the look out for an old tube TV just like this one." He pointed at the TV as he played his dad-card. 

    "Yeah. Lots of people are looking for these now," I replied, not taking the bait.

    He paused for a few seconds as he considered what to say next. Then he shot back, "Well, my son wants one for playing his old video games." His mouth tightened and his eyes narrowed. I imagine it was the same face he made when he was a playground bully.

    "Sounds fun." I turned to check the cashier's progress with wrapping the picture frames. I was glad to see she was almost done.

    Undeterred, he continued throwing down his dad-cards, "My son says these TVs are called CRTs, whatever that means, and my son says classic video games look best on CRTs just like this one." His voice was tightening up like his face. 

    "I suppose that's right," I said. 

    He stood silent for the next 30 seconds trying to figure out how I could be so dumb. I turned and watched the customer ahead of me hand her money to the cashier. He saw this too, and quickly changed tactics while he thought he still had time to trick this rube into giving up that TV. 

    He put his finger on the price tag and asked incredulously, "They want that much for this?... What do they think they think this is?... You're not actually gonna pay that are you?" It was quite an act. He was even waving his hands around for emphasis. I'm sure he was willing to pay that price, but I didn't point that out. 

    Instead, I nodded. "Actually, it is a decent price. These are collectable and getting more and more expensive." I patted the top of the TV with my hand. "And nice ones like this are really hard to find." It felt good to throw a little dig at him there at the end.

    It was finally was my turn at the register after 30 more seconds of his silence and staring. I slid the TV down the counter and turned it towards the cashier. She scanned the price tag and told me I could tap my card whenever I was ready. I tried tapping my card, but there was a card read error, and my card was denied. 

    Of course that guy was still standing there. He was watching me trying to pay, and he chortled at my card's error. I inserted my card instead of tapping, and that worked. The card reader beeped in triumph, and only then did he turn and sulk away. I think his last hope was that I didn't have enough money and he could still swoop in and snag the Toshiba from me. 

    Sheesh. I've been thrifting my entire life, and people can still surprise me.

    I told this story to Charlotte on our drive home from school. She said, "The next time some jerk tries to play their dad-card on you, you can play the daughter-card. Just say, 'Well, this is for my daughter, and she likes vintage video games, too.' I don't even care if you're lying about me. You have my permission to play that card." 

    Good to know.

    It's time to party like it's 2002:

    It looks better in person. I promise. 

Buying Used Vinyl: Free Surprises Inside!

I've written about thrift store records many, many times, so I won't get into any back stories today. I just want to write about vinyl surprises. 

For instance, I bought this LP last weekend.

It's Stephen Stills', self-titled, first solo album, and it was released in 1970. I knew that Mr. Stills was in Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. I also knew the hit song, "Love the One You're With." I wondered, What else is on here? The record was in decent shape, so I took it home to find out.

What I should have wondered was, Who else is on here? Turns out, quite a lot of people. Jimi Hendrix played the lead guitar on song four, "Old Times, Good Times." Then on the next song, "Go Back Home," Eric Clapton takes lead guitar duties. Ringo Starr, using the pseudonym Richie, plays drums on two songs. Graham Nash and David Crosby provide a little help for their friend with backing vocals, as did John Sebastian, Cass Elliot, and Rita Coolidge. Man, who wasn't on this thing? I had no idea. Talk about this record being a surprise...  

But that's not the kind of record surprise I want to talk about.

Hidden Surprise #1:

This doesn't happen very often, but sometimes I'll bring home an LP with more than the vinyl inside. For instance, I also bought this LP last weekend.

This Neil Young & Crazy Horse record from 1979 is "complete," which is nice. It has the lyric sheet and the original, photo inner sleeve. 

I knew the song "My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)," but that was it. Luckily, the record's first owner surprised me by adding the original Rolling Stone review from the October 18, 1979 issue. I didn't have to do any research on this record because RS's record review editor, Paul Nelson, had already done the heavy lifting for me.

I have always needed someone to point out the deep layers hidden within art for me to fully appreciate its complexities. That's why I enjoy music and film criticism. I need an artistic tour guide, and that what writers like Paul Nelson are. 

Reading a RS review on newsprint paper really brought me back to my high school days in the 80's. Rolling Stone was my gateway to a musical world beyond Iowa's rural Sioux county. I learned a lot about Rust Never Sleeps, too. (Note: Side two is now cited as an inspiration for the grunge movement of the 90's, but Paul wouldn't have know that was coming. The last song, "My My, Hey Hey (Into the Black)" is so sludgy it would be at home on a Melvins record.)

Hidden Surprise #2:

I didn't remember much about Charlie Sexton when I took this record up to the register last summer, but the clerk sure did. 

I had brought her a small stack of LPs, and the clerk fanned them out on the counter to get an accurate count. She gasped when she spotted Charle's record, "Charlie Sexton! Woa... I loooved Charlie Sexton!" She then placed a hand on her chest and a patted out a quick heartbeat, "I wonder what I did with my record?" She was then lost in thought for a moment, undoubtably trying to trace her steps back to 1985 when Charlie Sexton was a 16-year-old with a hit song, "Beat's So Lonely", mad guitar skills, and a video on MTV. And hair. He had a lot of hair.

It must have all worked for him, though. When I removed the record from its sleeve, several magazine pages slid onto our kitchen counter. The previous owner of this album was quite the Charlie Sexton fan.

I can tell the page on the left was once used as a poster because on the back side each corner has damage from a tape loop being removed.

There is a little irony in that Sexton's album is entitled Pictures for Pleasure. 

Whoever had this picture of Charlie hanging on their wall was hardly alone. The set designers for the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off placed Sexton's poster on the wall behind Ferris's bed.

That's actually cooler than having your video play on MTV. Videos come and go. Bueller is an 80s icon. Talk about bragging rights.

Hidden Surprise #3:

Here's George Michael's Faith LP. Like Charlie's record, I think an 80's teenager used to own it. But I think this teenager was sneaky.

The previous owner made a poster out of the photo on the lyrics sheet.

Again, you can tell from the tape marks. 

But that's not the hidden surprise. That lyric sheet was supposed to be in the LP's sleeve. This is the surprise:

Okay, let's play detective!

1) Using the words "Parents", "dismissal", and "Inservice" suggest this is a note from school.

2) Faith was released on November 2, 1987. November 1st fell on a Tuesday the next year, so we can assume this note from is from 1988.

3) People were pretty conservative in the 80s. I don't think many parents of a junior high student (the phrase "middle school" wasn't a thing, yet) would let their kid put up a picture of the guy who sings "I Want Your Sex" in their room. This is a note for a high school student.

4) Somewhere a school secretary used a typewriter to write this message four times on a single sheet of paper, photocopied it, and then used a paper cutter with one of those huuuuge swing arm blades to slice stacks of paper into four piles of strips. I'm guessing that this note is from a small, Iowa school with an enrollment under 500.

    a) I found this record in an Iowa thrift store. It's probably from an Iowan donor who went to an Iowa school.

    b) If you handed out 1200 strips of paper for 1200 kids to take home, you'd have 1000 strips of paper all over the floors of the school.

    c) It's harder to get away with making a "mess" is a small school (trust me on this). In a smaller school district, most of the notes would have probably gotten home.

Hypothesis: Some sneaky kid who attended a small high school in Iowa hid this note inside the record sleeve.

This note isn't like a picture of a celebrity crush that you hang onto even after you've moved on. It isn't memorable, so why save it? No one has ever said, "Dude, remember that time when the teachers had that sweet inservice? I still have the note! Check it out." 

I think someone got the note from their 8th period teacher. Then while walking to the parking lot with some friends, they decided that if their folks did not know about the early dismissal, then they would have an extra hour or more to do something their folks wouldn't approve of. (Remember, there was no internet, no email, and no text messaging back then. Report cards were handed out on conference nights. In small towns, snow days were announced by the local radio stations.)  I bet the owner of this note discovered it in their back pocket when they were in their room, and they quickly hid it from their parents in a record sleeve their parents would never open. 

And that's where it stayed for the last 37 years.

I could be completely wrong, though. 

Maybe it really was a sweet teacher inservice. 

Spotted on a Toy Shelf at the Salvation Army

 I have so many questions.

Scratchy, But Very Playable

Before I begin this post, I'd like to state for the record that I do buy new records. I was a member of Vinyl Me, Please and Vinyl Moon. I buy new records from Bandcamp, Discogs, Amazon, and eBay. I also buy new records at local record stores and record shows. 

BUT, that's not as fun as scoring used LPs out in the wild, wild, west of thrift. The new and used LPs in record stores, at shows, and online are organized, categorized, and alphabetized. No surprises there. 

You never know what you are going to find out in the wild. For every 100 religious records, you might come across one or two interesting specimens. There's a How did you even get here? aspect that is surprising and fun. If the LP is great shape that's an added bonus. I've found pristine LPs that are actually worth 30 times or more than what I paid. There's quite a rush when that happens.

With this mind, I'll explain why I've stopped ignoring scratched up and beat up records.

Usually I'd skip this Shades of Deep Purple LP. The vinyl is visibly scratched. The worn, outer sleeve has splits on the top, side, and bottom. That used to put me off. Now I pause before I flip to the next LP in the box on the bottom of a Goodwill shelf.

I ask myself, Should I give this bad boy a chance? 

I also ask myself some other questions to determine an answer:  1) Do I know the artist? 2) What is the artist's genre? 3) What is their style? 4) When was this recorded? 5) What condition is the vinyl in? 6) What condition is the sleeve in?

Notice which questions are last.

Dirt and debris do not deter me. I wet-vacuum clean almost all of my thrift records before I play them. If I see a feel-able scratch or a deep warp, then I'll pass. I hate it when a record skips. I'll also move on if it's covered with a haze of scratches. The rest really is up to chance. Some scratched thrift store LPs sound really good. Others not so much. It's really hard to know just by looking. You have to buy it and test it at home.

Why throw good money at "bad" records? 

1) Why not? You're not throwing much. Used LPs around here range from 79 cents to $1.49. People throw more change than that into fountains. 

2) You are forcing yourself to focus on one artist and their one statement by buying a scratchy album. You can't fast forward or skip. Limitations can be liberating. There is just too much music out there to absorb. Narrowing your focus sharpens your perceptions.

3) It's a great way to test run a LP. A clean, scratchy record will have better highs and lows than anything you can stream. If you like the music, you can get a better idea how a nicer copy would sound on your system. 

4) These records were not created by accident. For major releases, there was a small army of people putting their record together. Most didn't put their effort and money into it because they thought it would stink. Independent records have even more loved poured into them because they were a passion project. I like to think that every record has at least one interesting track on it. 

5) There's also a chance you'll discover "new" music. Marvin Homes And The Uptights's Ooh Ooh The Dragon and other Monsters came out in 1969. I discovered it almost 50 years later as a scratchy record, and it's one of my favorite finds. I've since purchased a much better copy. I still love my original scratchy one because I listened to it like that for years. Sounds weird, but you get used to the surface noise, and it sometimes revisiting the scratchy one just feels right. 

6) You're saving a small piece of musical history. I like to think that I'm giving the record a final chance to fulfill their purpose to entertain someone once again. 

7) Used records are a good time. Grab 'em when you can.

Okay. So let's go back to the Shades of Deep Purple LP. I'm familiar with the band ("Smoke on the Water," anyone?), and I checked Discogs to see what their earlier genre and style might be.

Four styles of rock sounds good to me. I took Shades home, cleaned and air-dried it, and put it on the turntable. Man, there are some great songs on this record. I hadn't check the tracklist earlier, and I didn't realize "Hush" was on here. I forgot they even sang that song. I also didn't know they did a slow and brooding version of The Beatles' "Help" or a banger cover of "Hey Joe". 

What also stood out was the surprising sound effects. Hush begins with a lonely wolf howling in the night. "One More Rainy Day" begins in a storm, and "Help" inexplicably begins in a B-movie science lab. My favorite effect comes after the last track. When the music for "Hey Joe" ends, you can hear what I assume is a recording engineer say, "That's the one." Then you hear someone else reply, "Right." Then they yawn, stretch, and heavy foot steps travel from one ear to the other (if you're wearing headphones). A squeaky door is opened and then is slammed shut. At that moment the turntable's tone arm raises and slides back to its cradle. 

That's how you end a record.

(I find it difficult to photograph record scratches. But holding the LP in sun seems to help.)

And that's the good news. The other news is that side 1 is in decent shape. You can hear clicks and pops in-between the songs, but the music overcomes that. Side 2 is slightly rougher. That's a shame because the static almost overpowers the understated opening to "Help". The music is louder on "Hey Joe", and the noise is masked quite a bit there. 

So, I was reminded that "Hush" is a Deep Purple tune, and that they also do two cover songs that I really like. That's worth more than the $1.50 spent for sure. I'm on the lookout for a better copy of Shades, but this does work for now. 

El Chicano's self-titled LP is another example of a scratchy find. I hadn't heard of this band before.

Rock, Latin, Funk, and Soul? Sign me up! Also, this was recorded in 1973 - a sweet spot when it comes to funk records. I really like the lead track, "Tell Her She's Lovely" and the instrumental covers "What's Going On" and "We've Only Just Begun." I can say that I did not see a Carpenters cover coming. This record gives off Santana and Brazil '66 vibes.

The vinyl's surface noise wasn't obnoxious, but I found a much better copy on Discogs for only $10. The outer sleeves are really close in condition, but one on the right is the keeper. The guy on the left is going back to Goodwill so he can inspire another. 

Let's try again.

This looks a lot worse than it is. That's some serious ring wear on the cover, but that doesn't bother me. Inside, the vinyl is VG to VG+. I like this record as-is. I am not seeking out a better copy. As an added bonus, this LP is BoBo approved.

I need to explain that last part. BoBo is our cat, and he hangs out with me in basement. Years ago the Science Center of Iowa had an exhibit about sound. One of the displays stated that scientists believe that animals can hear music, but they have no idea what the animals are actually are hearing.  

I believe that animals can hear actual music although I haven't done any scientific research. BoBo leaves the room if he doesn't like what I'm playing. If he does like what's on the turntable, then he jumps up on the arm of my chair and listens.

He moves his head from speaker to speaker with the stereo effects. His ears twitch when the music changes. When he's really listening, and I try to pet him, he pulls back from my hand and meows a sharp rebuke. 

I bought the Johnny Winter album on a Saturday morning. Bo and I listened to the entire album when it was clean and dry in the afternoon. I asked him if he wanted to listen to it again when it was finished, and he just stared at me from the arm of the chair. I flipped the LP over, dropped the needle, and Bo settled in for another round.

This is what BoBo's stamp of approval looks like.

I need to point out that I'm not always successful. I like The Ventures, especially their Xmas album, but I couldn't connect with this record. I was hoping for surf music, but the instrumentals were a bit on the slow side for me. There are some interesting tracks, but nothing that I need to play again. The vinyl's scratches aren't bad, so this one will go back to Goodwill for someone else to hopefully try. Note: BoBo was nowhere to be seen when I played this...

I suppose a record snob would look at my thrift store finds and hold their nose, and that's fine. 

I think it's normal to wonder what people think about you and your interests. The thing is, you just can't let others' opinions change who you are, what you do, or what you like.

It's not easy, but you have to try to stop looking at yourself through another person's eyes and imagining how they would judge you. You can't read minds. You can't predict what people will say. And you'll never really know what they are thinking. Worrying about that is just a waste of your time. 

These records aren't, though. They're fun.

Thrift Store Show and Tell '23: Fall Edition

Years ago I had a student who also liked to shop at thrift stores. She was really into 70's t-shirts, and it was fun to talk to her about her finds. Her mom, however, wasn't a huge fan of her daughter's hobby. Eventually the girl's closet was full of vintage threads, and her mom told her, "You can buy any shirt that you want. But from now on, for every one that you buy, you have to give one back." 

I thought that was kind of harsh at the time, but I get it now. We've lived in our house for ten years, and space in our basement is now at a premium. I have begun to thin the herd by returning stuff to Goodwill.

 

I used to own that Jackson Brown record. It was kinda weird seeing my old stuff for sale. Luckily, it and the other LPs that I had donated were gone the next time I checked. Makes me feel like my taste in music isn't so bad. Also, it makes me a little sad that I value the opinion of people I'll never meet. 

Maybe the next thrift store post I write will be about what else I donated... Okay onto the "finds".

I thought this was a hockey puck at first, but the Amazon logo gave it away. It's a 2nd generation Amazon Echo. It was first released in October, 2016. I had no idea if it would function, but we have a couple newer Echoes at home and they're fun to use. At $2.49, there wasn't much of a risk.

I used the Amazon Alexa app, an old phone cord, and a power adapter that we had in our kitchen "junk" drawer to give the Echo a test run. It only took a minute to connect to our internet. The speaker's sound isn't as beefy as our larger Echoes, but that's a minor complaint. "Raining Tacos" used to be hit at our house, but then Char grew out of Parry Gripp songs. (I miss those days.)

It's a light-up word clock from Sharper Image. I cleaned it up and put it in our downstairs bathroom. The clock advances in 5 minute increments. That takes a bit to get used to, but the timing seems to be very accurate. Also, the clock doubles as a nightlight.

I love this Razor Scooter's little kick stand.

Char's old scooter scrapes the pavement in certain spots when she scoots along with with us when we walk Ellie. That can be frustrating for Charlotte. I found this larger model in early November, but I wasn't sure if I should buy it. Maybe Charlotte would think she's too old for a scooter? I took a chance, and boy, I'm glad I did. Char glided out of our driveway without a hitch on her test ride. She then brought the scooter inside and personalized it with stickers. That's high praise from a 13-year-old. 

I internally smile every time I see this scooter in our garage. As a father of a teenager, I don't get as many "wins" as I used to.

Bike Project! It's a 1987 Peugeot U.S. Express. This was marketed as an "All Terrain Bicycle" before the term "mountain bike" became synonymous for all off-road bicycles. The Express looks pretty good from ten feet away. Looks can be deceiving. 

The plan is to make the Express as mechanically sound as I can without throwing too much money at it. I'll replace the chain, the cables, the housings, the brake pads, and the bearings. The tires look okay, so I'll leave them on for now. The same goes for the saddle, grips, and pedals.

I'm pumped to finally have a real bike stand in the garage. I should have bought one of these years ago. 

I made this ring from a spoon that I bought out of that flatware box. It's the first spoon ring I've made in years, and I was curious if I could still do it. 

I spent a lot time rounding off the inside edge of the ring to make it feel more comfortable on my finger, but that didn't help. I don't like wearing it. I forgot that spoon rings are more fun to make than they are to wear.

Man, Genesis ruled the 80s airwaves. In 1986 alone, "Throwing it All Away", "In Too Deep", "Land of Confusion", "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight" were all in the top 5 of the US charts. "Invisible Touch" went all the way to number 1.

Here's The Beach Boys first LP, Surfing Safari from 1962. This isn't the greatest group of songs. The boys were playing their own instruments, instead of studio pros like the Wrecking Crew, and it shows. 

Check out this picture from the back of the sleeve. Look how young they are. I believe their ages ran from 21 to 14 years old. The Beach Boys was an accurate name.

I had this 45 when I was a boy. I remember being confused by the guy who started yelling about eating meat and pudding. My friends and I really liked the lyric "Hey Teachers! Leave them kids alone!"  "Another Brick in the Wall" was the most requested song at the 6th grade skating party at Magic Wheels. 

Any record that mixes classic monsters with Christmas in okay with me. I currently have this hanging on a wall in my basement.

The Ed Wood Box of six DVDs is still sealed in its original plastic wrap. That's cool, but it's also frustrating. There's no way I can bring myself to tear off the wrap. Whatever value this has to a collector would be greatly diminished if I open it. I'll just put this in the box of stuff I'm going to sell to Half Price Books.

This DVD set is open, so there's no guilt in watching Monty Python. 

I spotted this sign when we were walking in Charlottetown. PEI. Char didn't get the reference, and she wasn't impressed with the humor when I showed her the"Ministry of Silly Walks" sketch on YouTube. I guess we won't be watching Monty Python together on Sunday nights. 

That's about it. I bought other stuff, but nothing I want to write about. I am excited to have another bike to work on. I took some "before" pictures, so if things work out with the Express, I'll have some "after" shots as well.