Living in the Past

Rock-ola 451 circa 1973

Sometimes we live in the past and there is nothing wrong with that. We do that through genealogy and collecting antiques to scrapbooking or anything else that brings back memories of times already gone. I collect anything Shirly Temple or Dionne Quintruplets as well as well as depression and pre-depression glass. As a couple I tend to collect very specific antique items that have a history or story to the piece whereas my husband collects "stuff". By stuff, I mean things related to his favourite sports team and yes we do have a room solely dedicated to that team but he also collects stuff as in travel trinkets and bits and pieces I can't even begin to understand. He likely doesn't understand my fascination for collecting things with a history so we are pretty much matched.

Now imagine my response when he calmly announced over his morning coffee that he was going to pick up a jukebox he had found. He had actually bought something with a history! Here we met a slight clash as the only spot this thing would fit into was exactly where my antique and fully functional EXP.B.T. sewing machine stood adorned with the antique and fully functional Underwood manual typewriter right beside the cabinet holding my depression and pre-depression glass. What the heck was he thinking?

It took him most of Saturday to get the jukebox home and after trying a few spots I agreed to move the sewing machine. The jukebox actually looks good in that spot. Then I agreed to help clean-up and restore the jukebox. Having restored antique pieces before cleaning the jukebox was almost no challenge other than the offending smell of nicotine. About 1,000 45s came with the jukebox and he immediately hauled out all his saved 45s. Oh yes, he does have a collection of records including picture records but those are usually out of sight. Talk about a direct contrast to the iPod! I'm just waiting for the old manual victrola that will play the cone records we have. It's only a matter of time now that he has come over to my side of collecting things that have a history.