Rant #3,094: Like I Do

Welcome to a new week, and welcome to spring.

Yes, the season of winter is supposedly over, although it never really happened in my neck of the woods … but it still can happen over the next three weeks or so.

If you get my drift, here where I am, we got maybe a wisp of snow this winter, and not much else, while other places suffered from “The Winter From Hell” this past season.

But as history has it, it really isn’t until the second week of April that we can breathe a full sigh of relief from the possibility of snow, so even though I am happy about the weather, I still think we should try to continue to be on Mother Nature’s good side for the next two to three weeks or so, just to be on the safe side.

Happily for me, nothing much was doing this past weekend, other than finally buying myself a new pair of pants—I hadn’t done that in quite a while—and going over to the local VFW hall for another record show.

Let me handle the pants first.

I am one of those people who just absolutely hates to buy clothes.

I have no patience, and no interest, especially when I have to try them on to make sure I buy the right-fitted clothes.

But it has gotten to the point that I need a new pair of pants.

Some of my pants don’t fit anymore, some fit but have holes in them, and others fit just right without any blemishes, so really, all I needed was one pair of pants.

So yesterday, I went with my wife to buy one, and with her help, I was able to locate two possible purchases.

One fit me perfectly, the other … leave it to me to choose a pair of pants that had its size mismarked, as by my estimation after trying to get it on, it was probably two sizes mismarked, as it was marked as the same exact size as the other pants, but was clearly not even near that size.

So I finally bought a pair of pants, and knowing me, I will wear these pants down to the nub over the next number of years, and then I will once again need a new pair of pants.

As for the record show, this is the same one I have spoken about in prior Rants.

It is held locally at the VFW Hall, and they hold it about once every three months during the year.

When I get there, the place is jammed, it is very warm in the hall, and generally, the prices on certain records are astronomical, way more than I would ever pay for an addition to my collection.

So I walk around and shop like I do at the supermarket—checking prices really seriously—and I usually can come away with a couple of good buys.

When I first walked in, I was very happy to see the Japanese dealers again, and they brought with them a good amount of stuff that I would buy if I had all the money I would need to cover the purchases.

But being on a strict budget, I bought three Japanese singles from them, although I could have bought five times that amount if I had the cash.

As it was, they were fairly priced, and I do think I got a few really nice new additions to my collection from them.

I bought my usual Monkees single from them, a little bit of an oddity because the single has a picture sleeve that replicates the original U.S. “Daydream Believer” picture sleeve, but the single that comes with it is clearly not for that song, it is for “Star Collector.”

I also bought “Goldfinger” by Shirley Bassey, whose Japanese release has a cool cover of Sean Connery and the girl painted in gold from the film of the same name.

I also purchased from them a Nancy Sinatra single that was released before she became an international star, which you can see above.

Being that her father Frank was a prime executive at Reprise Records, he gave his daughter enough leverage to find a song that fit her and could become a hit, and stateside and abroad, numerous Nancy singles were released without any action early on in her career, and this was one of them.

It took until 1965 or so for her to record and release “These Boots Are Made For Walking,” and the rest is history, but it is also interesting to find these early 45s, and seeing her without her blond tresses—the look was as important as the music, even back then.

From another dealer, I purchased a Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass 45 and a Paul McCartney 45 that somehow has eluded me—for $1 apiece with picture sleeves!—and I was done.

Looking ahead at the week, I will have plenty of work to do, but for the first time since the end of last year, I don’t have any doctors’ appointments on the slate for this week, either for myself, my son or my mother.

My wife has one appointment this week, but otherwise, I have a clean slate … and remember, this is the first Monday in about a month that I was able to put up a new entry, because between doctors’ appointments and car appointments, I have been booked solid since the end of last year.

Hopefully, this will be a calm and peaceful week … but you never know with the life I lead now.

But at least I will be able to experience the ups and downs of the week by the seat of my new pants.

That is the real bottom line.