Party and Cleaning

Where do I start? Our coach Jason will be leaving us in a few weeks. The rowing club will be hosting a going away party for him at my house Saturday night. That was the reason I was so frantic to finish up the patio project and get the back yard into shape. I picked up a bug spray to keep the mosquitoes down. It is a new type I’ve never used before with lemongrass oil which is supposed to be much safer to use around pets and humans. I also stocked up extra citronella oil for the “smudge pot” patio burners. Those damn mosquitoes don’t stand a chance! All looks good, so now we are hoping the weather will hold and not rain.

Yesterday I cooked down two pork butts and pulled them all apart. That meat is now soaking up my “special sauce” in the ice box. This sauce is so easy to make and gets rave reviews…. Cook together 1 bottle of chili sauce, one can of soda (cola or Dr Pepper is best) 3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce, and two tablespoons hot sauce. Flower can be added to thicken if desired… that all there is to it…..

While messing with all this in the kitchen I did up a batch of cloe-slaw. There will be good eating here Saturday night!!

Another project for me has been getting ready for the road trip coming up next week. Will first be going to Scranton, PA and continuing on to Elgin, IL for the antique phonograph show. The first time I attended this show was back in 1980. It can’t be 30 years ago!!! Then I’ll loop home to Alabama, I’ll be adding some 3,000 miles to the truck odometer. That truck still keeps going. I have 142K on it; it is working on its 9^th year on the road with the original battery and clutch!

I’m going to be taking my old Mira 15 ½ inch disc music box out to unload. I get so attached to things; this music box is no exception. I bought it back in 1972 and made payments on it for months before I was able to take possession. I was living in Lancaster, PA at the time. I used to make twice weekly trips to “Lancaster Blood, Plasma, and Components” to sell plasma to help pay for the thing. If you went eight times in four weeks you got a five dollar bonus!

Two years back I acquired a much rarer model in the same disc size. It makes no sense to hang on to this, regardless of the sentimental attachment. I picked out a good assortment of discs, oiled it up, and waxed the cabinet. It is all packed and ready to ride on the passenger seat in the cab of my truck. This just goes to prove when you collect this stuff you never really own it, you are just a caretaker for a while.

The base I later acquired for this box is worth almost as much as the music box itself. I’ll be selling that off separately. I will be tossing some lines out at the show for that. I did a photo shoot in the front yard in the evening sun for the best light. The cabinet is so rare and hard to find it should pretty well sell itself.

Cleaning out that cabinet I found vinyl LP’s I’ve not played in decades. I’m playing them now as I type this out. That is one thing about being frugal, I never dumped over my old technology when new came out. I was so impressed when CD’s were introduced in the 1980’s.

There was a magazine in those early years that reviewed the limited releases; I think it was called Digital Audio Review. Google could not confirm this for me. Those early CD’s were very expensive. Now CD’s are pretty much obsolete. It all just makes my head want to explode!

Back in the 1980’s there were record shops on 8^th Street in Manhattan that sold the best 1930’s music. Many of those records were bootleg recordings produced in small pressings that never made it to CD status. The memories so many of my LP’s hold….

One memorable “New York City “ moment occurred when I was headed back uptown after a day of shopping at the Strand Bookstore and the record shops on 8^th Street. There was a second hand shop called the Salvage Barn on Hudson St. I stopped in to see if any treasures could be turned up. I don’t like to haul my back pack or bags around in this kind of place. Too many things can get knocked into. The conversation with the lady behind the counter went as follows;

Brick: Would it be OK to leave this stuff here so I don’t destroy anything looking around?

Lady: Sure, you’ve been shopping. Did you find anything good?

Brick: I hit the gold mine today! I scored the best Ruth Etting LP. (Pulling the record from the bag to show it off)

Lady; Ruth Etting… My husband was a producer. He knew Ruth and the “Gimp”. (That would be Moe Snyder, Ruth’s first husband. Portrayed by jimmy Cagney in the movie “Love Me or Leave Me”) The “Gimp” always said, “My Ruthie has the best legs. I’d swear an oath on her legs.”

This exchange floored me. Where else but in Manhattan could something like this happen?

How I miss those days when I would spend hours upon hours in the stacks of the Strand Book Store and the funky shops along 8^th Street. It was such a special place in time and my life…..