The Teenager meets old technology head on

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I don't normally blog about my husband and children as they never asked me to blog in the first place and I don't fancy evil stares at the dinner table when I have written about something they'd rather I didn't.

However, I have the teenager's full permission for this one. At the beginning of the week, before they'd gone back to school, I came back from a journey out with my daughter, and wandered upstairs to tell the son I was back. I could hear music coming from his room, but there always is. This piece did sound familiar, but in a very odd way. Once I'd got as far as The Room, I'd recognised the music: it was Simon and Garfunkel's Sound of Silence, but it didn't sound quite as I remembered it - I thought that it was one of those sort of combined efforts something like Simon and Garfunkel feat. Soggy Dogs. Sampling, that's the word.

Then I saw that son had fixed up my record player in his room - quite a feat in itself as it has a thousand wires, and some of them have to be pinched in not plugged. And then it dawned on me. Son may know all sorts of things about MySpace, mobiles, dvds &c &c &c, but he does not know that records come in different speeds. Quietly, resisting all efforts to shriek, I explained to him the archaic terms 45 rpm and 33 rpm, and that when you were playing an LP (he now knows it stands for Long Player) 33 rpm was best. The slightly sad thing is that it was his second listen to that side, and he'd enjoyed it as it was..... but records, he tells me, are cool.

Unfortunately for the son, his room is next to my study - sound travels effortlessly between the two and I know every word, every one of all the LPs of mine that are now in his room, and I like to sing along.

Comments

Unknown said…
shiraz.lingerieThat's a great story. I bet son had been so proud of himself for getting that old-fashioned record player working. And good on him for giving permission to blog about his mistake.

My parents had this early 60's radiogram which was even better value than most old record players as it had four speeds: 16, 33, 45 and 78. You could have some real fun with that :)

And I'm now listening to Simon and Garfunkel, though on CD, as the the computer can't play vinyl. (I still have all my old records too)
7 September 2007 at 21:06
Jane Badger said…
Gillian - I was, I admit, impressed that he'd managed to get the thing going, as it has defeated me at times! Goodness yes, I remember those other speeds. My parents had an enormous radiogram the size of a chest of drawers which my mother had had as a 21st present, and that had 16 rpm as well as 78 rpm. And you could stack the records as well, if I remember right.
8 September 2007 at 11:15
Unknown said…
That radiogram sounds like the my parents had; it was the size of a sideboard. YOu could stack records on that too.
The radio had stations listed on the display - including Home, Third and Light. Groovy, man :)
9 September 2007 at 18:10
tim relf said…
Great. That's a small victory for us ancients against the young people (ancients nowadays being anyone over 18, of course!)
12 September 2007 at 11:34
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