Cultureshock

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Video transcript

The house where I live was built by my dad in 1936. He said that he wouldn’t be there for long but he spent the next fifty years there until he died and a few years later my mam, Dot, passed on.

My wife and I had the job of clearing out the house and had come across some old records and a gramophone, which I had not seen for years. We had to bring them down from the loft and start to clean them up. With a little bit of polish and a duster cleaned the outside up, the records we had to clean with a solution of water and vinegar which did the job. We wrapped them up in cellophane and put them back in my attic. There was also over 300 records which were all 78s and made up of foxtrot and ballroom dances, some jazz and big band sound. There was also boxes of needles and some more sound boxes.

So, we wound it up to see if it was still working, I put on 78 record on and brought back good memories of sitting in the garden on a nice summers day with the family having a Sunday tea which was bread and butter, jelly and custard and cakes and listening to the records playing and arguing about who was going to get up and wind it up again. Dad solved that problem by clipping you around the ear. You moaned but you got up and did it. We also played them in the winter time when there was nothing on the radio or when the first TV we got which had a mind of its own to come on or off.

Nowadays we often bring it out and play the records when we are doing jobs in the garden and there’s nothing on today’s TV. The grandchildren think its good to wind it up and put the records on.

What I like about it is that it reminds me of my parents and the good times we had listening to it and also no fiddling with the bass or treble just good old solid sound.