Rant #2,857: Music In My Bones

I told you yesterday about my soda shower incident, which will go down in my own personal history as among the weirdest things that ever happened to me.
 
Now that the soda is all washed out all over my body, I can tell you about a better thing that I did this weekend—and on the very same day, earlier in the day on Sunday.
 
I went to a record show that was held in my community at the local American Legion Hall.
 
I have attended this show before, as the outfit that put on the show has held numerous such shows in my area, and in other areas of Long Island, for the past couple of years.
 
At these shows, you usually have about two dozen vendors showing off their wares—mostly vinyl records—LPs and 45s—but also CDs, DVDs, and a lot of other things, like magazines and T-shirts and things like that.
 
These shows have become very popular, as I see that more and more people are attending.
 
This particular show, which comes every two or three months during the year, had to shut down completely during the pandemic, but has recently revved up again, and I have gone to about two or three of the shows in the past year or so—not every one, but I did do so this past Sunday.
 
When I was younger, I used to go to these things all over the place, and I used to go to the big ones held in Manhattan, where thousands upon thousands of people look over the wares of hundreds of vendors.
 
Those days are over for me for a variety of reasons, so when one of these record shows comes to my area, I kind of argue with myself whether I should go or not, and even if I go, I don’t spend very long in the exhibition hall, maybe 20 minutes or a half hour.

Because the room gets pretty crowded, they require that everyone wear a mask, and they do make sure you have one on when you pay your entrance fee to get in.
 
It gets very warm in the hall as the number of people in there jumps up, so when it gets too tight in there, it is my personal signal to leave with whatever I have.
 
You see all types at these shows—young and old and those in between. Vinyl records are hot right now, so you see plenty of college kids as well as plenty of old fogeys like myself looking through rows and rows of records of all kinds.
 
I put myself on a strict budget—I mean, I paid more than $50 to fill up my gas tank last week—so I can’t buy much, but I find it fun—and often personally rewarding—when I go to these shows and find things I didn’t even think of or knew to even exist.
 
On Sunday, I found the Doors’ picture sleeve that is at the top of this Rant that I had never seen before, so I snapped it up for a good price. I knew it existed, but never actually saw it, so when I saw it and saw the price, that became my first purchase of the day.
 
The Doors are thought of as an album-oriented band, and I do have all of their LPs--even the two without Jim Morrison--and a smattering of singles, so this one became my newest addition.
 
And then I wandered around, looking here and there, and I found a table manned by two Japanese vendors who had an array of Japanese singles that they were trying to sell.
 
I went through what they had, and let me tell you, if I had more money, I could have bought them out—they had some great things to sell on Sunday.
 
I settled on three Monkees’ singles from Japan, singles that I knew existed but which never found their way into my collection, one of which is pictured below.

 
I already have a few of the group’s Japanese singles, so I bought the three that they offered that I did not have, with nice picture inserts—not sleeves—and I bought them at a good price.
 
The Monkees were, and always will be, absolutely hugely popular in Japan, so I am happy with what I purchased, and maybe one day I can get even more of their Japanese singles.
 
These two Japanese vendors also were selling a couple of rows of LPs, and I looked through what they had—and again, I wish I had more money to spend, because they really had some great stuff at good prices.
 
I figured I would buy from them something completely off the wall, so I bought a Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders LP, which features their biggest U.S. hit, “The Game of Love.”

 
Again, I knew that this LP existed, and I wasn’t necessarily looking for it, but yes, off the wall it is.
 
It was then beginning to get a bit busy in there, and I was very warm, so I figured that I had purchased enough, and I left the exhibition hall, pretty happy with what I had in my bag.
 
My time was done there, I went ot my car, and came home.
 
Everyone has their “thing,” and I just find record collecting to be such a relaxing hobby.
 
Little did I know that I would become “soda pop” just a few hours later, but at least the records that I had purchased earlier in the day were safe in the house while I got my shower.
 
And yes, if I can, the next time this show comes to my town, I will hopefully be able to go and see what is there for me to buy.
 
And I hope those two Japanese vendors come back, because I still have business to do with them.