"...JUST FOR THE RECORD"

I have a rather large collection of vinyl records, mostly classical.  I have two stories about how I got them and how some of them disappeared.  (Since I love to stretch out my stories, I will tell them in two blog entries.)

01.  Germany

For 18 months, I was stationed at an Air Force radar site on top of a medium-sized mountain in Germany's Schnee Eiffel area.  Schnee means snow in German, and it certainly was an apt name for where I was,

As I remember, there was always a layer of fresh fallen snow, on top of older layers of snow, and therefore all of our "leisure" activity had to be held inside, in our flimsy barracks, huddled around our inefficient pot-bellied stove.

Early in my overseas assignment, one of the radar technicians saw me warming my innards at our stove while listening on my pocket radio to a German station that played only Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby, 24 hours a day.  He suggested that I upgrade my musical sensibility by listening to "real" music.  

I was already a fan of "classical" music, especially Mozart's works and had signed up for the RCA Record Club, Classical Division.  They offered 11 free vinyl discs with membership, and would mail other discs unless they were told not to.  I was hooked.

Unfortunately, I joined while stationed in Biloxi, Mississippi.  I had to have future records sent to my Massachusetts home.  When  I got stationed in Germany, I asked for records and bills to come to my address there.

Two situations arose.  Record delivery by mail to U.S. units in Germany took a long time to be delivered.  Therefore I did not meet the cancelation time limit and all monthly record selections became mine. In addition, I never got a monthly bill. (When I finally got a bill, it was quite astronomical; luckily my "21" winnings took care of that.")

Soon after talking to the radar technician, before I had received any RCA Record Club records, I hopped a ride on the back of an icy Army truck and had them drop me off at an Army store that sold electronic stuff.  Everything was low in price, so I bought a record of Beethoven's Fifth with a famous conductor, and to play it, I purchased the cheapest player ever made.

After I bummed a chilly ride back up the mountain, I began to regale my mates with the loud sounds of "dit dit dit dah!"  It didn't take long for them to find a pair of ear-phones for me to wear.

After a little while, I duplicated my Army truck trip and purchased a record containing arias from Operas that I had never heard of, but now I love.

When I got back, I found packages of vinyl records - those monthly selections that I was unable to cancel.  

After my mountain assignment, I moved all my "gear," including a foot-locker filled with vinyl records to my new home for 18 months in a warmer southern Germany location.

When my Germany tour was over, after divesting what belonged to the Air Force, I ended up with an extremely heavy box of hundreds of records.  Back at home, my girlfriend, Elaine, arranged for her mother to store these records upstairs in her summer cottage.

Elaine and I got married and I made up a large to-do list, with "catalog vinyl records" in a prominent spot.

A while later, Elaine's mother "passed" and in her will, she left the cottage to her daughter, Janine and son, Lenny.  We neglected to tell them about the records in the upstairs bedroom. (A BIG mistake!)

After matters settled down, it was time to rediscover that "real" music, Elaine and I got things ready to catalog and then play our records. We went to the cottage to get our future musical items, and, you guessed it. All of those hundreds of vinyl records had disappeared!

...........................................................  

Basta!