When You Find A Radio Stations Entire Album Collection...At A Thrift Store

We don't visit the thrift stores as much as we would like (you may think that's incorrect by the number of thrift store posts I write...). Where we used to live, I tried to visit the local thrift store at least a couple of times a month. I noticed several people who were there every time I was. I concluded they must visit the store every day.

And, if you're thrift store shopping, that's a good strategy. Because if you go every day, you won't miss out on some of those gems that come along every once in a while.

Since we don't go every day, we occasionally find one or two of those gems. A few months ago, we came across something I thought was amazing. In the back of the Logan Deseret Industries, sitting on a cart were box after box of classic albums and 45s. Apparently, it was the inventory of a radio station, I can't think it being anything else.

If I had time, I would have search each box, trying to find some of those classic records from stars long since gone. I looked through a couple of boxes and ended up buying four Bing Crosby Christmas albums, a Nat King Cole, and one from the Four Knights because I recognized, Walkin' on Sunshine.

I doubt the records are worth anything. Maybe the "Non-Distribution" status might make them more valuable, but considering in the 1950s and 1960s, thousands of those records were produced and distributed to stations across the country and world. No, I chose them because I remember putting on Christmas LPs on my dad's HiFi as a kid.

No, I probably left a few gems in the boxes, gems found by others who did some searching through the many many boxes. It's okay. I found some good ones.

 

Out Of The 144 Photos I Posted In September, 2011...Only Nine Remain

Every once in a while, I'll check out some past blog posts. I've got a few thousand to choose from (3, 168, to be exact...). I thought I'd see what I wrote about back in September, 2011. Turns out, Google's blog format, Blogger, is great at saving the words, but not the pictures. 

Oh, there are spaces where the pictures once were, but the pictures--almost all of them--are gone. And I don't believe they're ever coming back.

I should say that the pictures weren't that great to begin with. I'm sure some were better than others, but most were...you know...not the most interesting shots out there. Of course, I can't remember all of them. I'm going by memory.

At first, I was a bit disappointed. I thought the words, pictures and videos would be there forever. But of all the blog posts created by bloggers across the world for decades, just keeping track of all the photos would be a massive assignment. I know I wouldn't want it.

I checked out September 30, 2011 and I saw the circle with a line in the middle--missing picture. I scrolled down and saw all the pictures were gone. I looked through all 30 blog posts from September, 2011. I posted 144 photos. Only nine pictures remain, eight from my post on 9/2/11 about a baseball book I bought at the D.I. thrift store (a book, I no longer have...), and one picture of acrylic grapes form a 9/13/11 post--interestingly enough, also about another trip to a different D.I. thrift store. If you've followed this blog, you know I love that place.

I know that over the years I've searched specifically for the post about that book and about acrylic grapes. I believe that's why those pictures pulled up when all the rest are gone. If you want to search those posts, be my guest. They're all located on the right side of this blog post page.

I know nothing lasts forever, even digital blog post entries. Looks like the pictures go first, then I suppose if the internet were to go away, so would all my words. It would be cool to have all these posts published into physical books. But if so, what would I do with them? Of the 144 photos I posted in September, 2011 on my blog, only nine remain. I wonder if anyone will ever see them. Looks like they won't see the others.

And, a decade or so in the future, will the picture I posted today of a missing picture show up? If past is prologue, probably not. Then again, it'll be the right picture after all.

Who Needs A Cart...When You're Shopping At A Thrift Store?

I picked out the shoes first. I needed shoes that wouldn't slide all over the floor for my upcoming show (it only takes a director to tell you--in the middle of the number, mind you--that you're being singled out for causing traffic problems in a dance number...). I put them on; they felt pretty good so I decided to walk around the thrift store to see how they felt after a few minutes.

From there, with my own shoes in hand, I meandered to the handbag/backpack section. My current backpack is a tad on the small side. I found a nice Ogio bag that was in fantastic condition, so I picked that one up as well. Since I opened up all the backpack pockets to see the overall condition, I decided to just slip my shoes into the backpack.

Fast forward a few minutes and my backpack was full of knick knacks (I swapped my shoes for those I was buying...) and I brought the whole thing to the checkout counter. As I left, I glanced at all those thrift store shopping carts waiting for people to taken then on yet another journey around the building. My shopping adventure didn't require four potentially squeaky wheels that may or may not careen into other shoppers and/or merchandise. All I needed was a slightly-used backpack.