The Circle of Life

Disclaimer: The title is wayyyyy deeper than the content.

I'm not exactly sure when I was given my first record player.  It was red and white.  I like to think it was a step up from Fisher Price, but it might have been exactly that.  I do remember getting my first record (maybe it was at the same time) and it was Sesame Street.  "C is for Cookie" was on it; likely a billboard number one for the six and under set at the time.

My mom loved music and she loved her vinyl.  I may have grown up in the eighties and nineties but my music was 70's Rock (and Sesame Street).  My first "grown up" record was Micheal Jackson.  Then Corey Hart.  And then we moved to cassettes and I am one hundred percent certain that I have never purchased an actual record.

Yesterday, my fourteen year old daughter sent me a photo, of a record player. "I want this" she wrote. I laughed.  "Hahahahaha".  "Why?" She asked, "what's wrong with it?" I took some time to think about my answer.  There's nothing wrong with it, per se.  I don't currently have a record player but I did buy my mom one for Christmas a couple of years ago; because she has records still.

I mean, really, she doesn't own a CD let alone a record.  She downloads music from iTunes.  When they want to watch a video they don't have to sit restlessly waiting to see if Video Hits will, by chance, play the one video they're waiting to see; they go to YouTube.  Heck, even I go to YouTube.

I attach a cord to my phone that is connected to my car and I can play my own playlist.  I turn on Galaxy or whatever is on my satellite channels.  I can still use my phone.  I can stream radio if I have an internet signal.  What on earth does she need a record player for?   "There's nothing wrong with it," I wrote back, "but it's not like vinyl is easy to come by nowadays." For some reason I thought that might be the end of it but it wasn't. "What's vinyl?" She asked. I rest my case.