Yesterday I decided it was time to clean up the cupboard where my stereo from 1971 is stored. As I recall I paid in the range of $500 for the system. Taking inflation into account that's like spending $2250 for a stereo system now which seems extravagant and unreasonable to me. The amplifier, tuner and turntable are still intact but what's left of the speakers are above the garage. The woofers have long since gone the way of all flesh.
Some years afterward I bought an 8-track player/recorder to go with it and then when 8-track tapes went extinct, I bought a nice cassette player but it quit and they too have pretty much disappeared. So the question is, should be buy a CD player to play music through this system or
shall we forgo hardware based music media entirely and skip directly to some kind of mp3 player?
Back to the system, I knew the amplifier was working because Jonathan uses it to play his music over the built-in speakers this house has. I tried getting the tuner to work but without success. However I got the turntable to work reasonably well and yesterday I listened to the Mitzelfelt Chorale album titled "Anthems of Praise and Rejoicing"* that I haven't heard for probably 30 years. For you sibs, it's the one with "O Divine Redeemer", "God So Loved the World" and other classics. I've loved this set for a long time. I wondered why Mom and Dad might have bought this album because none of the hymns are ones we would have known from church. I asked Mom this morning not expecting her to remember but she thought maybe it came with that set of used records Dad bought at the neighbor's sale in Cochranville.
Now I'm listening to the Mennonite Hour doing such numbers as "To Love someone more dearly everyday..." and songs by a men's quartet that includes Earl Maust who was Dennis Maust's father.
Eldon, I have one of your albums in my possession by New Creation called "The Folk Sound of Freedom".
*If you click on this link you'll see a picture of the album cover that I just uploaded. I joined Discog just so I could upload that picture.
Great post Dad, I was surprised to learn that the stereo we still use dates back to 1971. Obviously they don't make things like they used too :) Next time I am home we should have a record listening party, I would love to hear some of those old Simon & Garfunkel records.
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