I was filled with a bit of nostalgia last week.
Last Thursday, my family gathered at my late grandfather’s house in Wroxeter to enjoy some social time following Grandpa’s burial service (he passed away in January). Naturally, stories were shared and photo albums were perused.
Usually when the Snell family gathers, a joke is always cracked about the time “little Mikey stoked the fire in the wood stove at Christmas.”
As a kid, we would always gather at Grandma and Grandpa’s house for Christmas Day dinner and presents. After all the presents were unwrapped, the wrapping paper (and usually anything else that could be burned) were slowly fed into the wood stove.
One year – the exact year escapes me, but I couldn’t have been any older than 9 or 10 years old – I figured out how to open the door to the wood stove. Being young, naïve and not wanting to waste time on a task, I stuffed the wood stove full of wrapping paper.
Within five minutes that Christmas, the comments started on how hot it was in the normally cool basement of the house.
As I recall the story, the basement quickly vacated once everyone realized “little Mikey stoked the fire” and brought a tropical wave to Wroxeter.
And the family never let me live it down.
Every year following that incident, there would always be the passive aggressive comment of, “Hey Mike, can you throw that wrapping paper in the wood stove?” That comment turned into, “Hey Mike, how are you going to stoke the stove?” after Grandma and Grandpa switched to a propane fire place a few years ago.
For the first time in history, I was not chirped with that story when we were at the house last week.
Instead, as we were going through photos, we were encouraged to go through the house and grab any items that we would want.
Thankfully, my son Duncan was not present at this gathering, so “Scrounger” couldn’t load up with a bunch of items.
The one item I had my eye on a few weeks ago when I was there was a record/CD/cassette tape player. It’s nothing special, all things considered – it is one of those modern units released in the last 20-25 years and sold at a chain box store – but I always loved the sound of vinyl and I have a slew of CDs collecting dust in my basement.
Nobody had claimed the unit last week, so I did.
Going through the record collection at the house, many of the artists were good but not necessarily favourites of mine (Lawrence Welk, Dolly Parton, Hank Williams, etc.). There were a couple of Bing Crosby albums that my wife nabbed, but for me it was the record player I was after.
When we got home, I wandered down the street to my parents’ house, where I knew there were a few record albums that I enjoy (and were not being used). After finding Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours album, along with Prism’s Armageddon and a couple of compilation albums, I wandered back home and spun some records.
I put on one of the compilation albums, which led off with The Chords’ “Sh-Boom,” which caught everyone’s attention at home. Why? Because it was in the movie Cars. After the kids had a little dance – and I explained to them how a record works – I put on the Rumours album.
Rumours is one of the very few albums that I can play from start to finish, and perhaps the only one that I will listen to in order. Once “Gold Dust Woman” was done playing and the record stopped spinning, I put Armageddon on. After getting through the title track, my daughter wandered over.
“Put the other one back on,” she said.
“Which one?” I asked.
“The other record, with the good music on it,” she replied.
I picked up the Rumours album and asked if this is the one she meant.
“Yes, that one!”
I put the Rumours album back on, and as soon as the first notes of “Second Hand News” hit, Ivy was back to dancing.
She’s like her dad, I suppose. She knows a great album when she hears one.
And now I have another excuse to get the record player out.
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Mike Wilson is the editor of Midwestern Newspapers. He is looking to expand his record collection sooner rather than later, as he doesn’t want to wear out the Rumours album just yet. Comments and feedback are welcome at mwilson@midwesternnewspapers.com.
