I have a sister who is 17 years older than myself. When I was ten years old
(in 1967), she took me with her to visit one of her high school girlfriends who
was married. In their dining room was an oak upright phonograph. Even at that
age, I loved music and had never seen anything like it before. I was all over
it checking it out. Up until that time, I was a comic book nut and had
hundreds of them, even comics from the 1940's that I had found. That Summer,
two things happened -- my mom threw away my comic book collection when I was
gone to my aunt and uncle's for the Summer, and I bought my first phonograph, a
Columbia 'Symphony' at a roadside flea market for $2.00 Within a couple of
months, I bought an Edison 'Home' Type C with an all-brass Hawthorne & Sheble
'daisy' horn and a boxful of cylinders for $25 and I all but forgot about comic
books. In those days, phonographs were quite easy and inexpensive to come by.
I often picked them out of the trash or had people si
mply give them to me. We were living in Buffalo, NY at the time. I remember
more than one rural antique store that had proper barns just stacked with
cabinet phonographs -- take your pick $4 each. External horn models were a bit
more -- ranging between $25-$65. Information about phonographs was very scarce
and I had only limited access to books such as 'From Tinfoil to Stereo', 'The
Fabulous Phonograph', and Jim Walsh's and Aida-Favia Artsay's columns in
'Hobbies' magazine. In 1969, I saw an Edison 'Standard' for sale in the
Buffalo paper's classies. I called the number and it was Paul Baker who was
three years older than myself. We talked on the phone for a couple of hours.
Paul, who has mentored by John Perschbacher, became my mentor. We would spend
hours rebuilding phonographs and playing records. We would drive around
Western New York looking for phonographs when Paul only had a learner's permit!
Anyway, that is how it started for me. Paul and I are no longer
close, also because of the hobby. I now have 45 years under my belt and have
loved every second of it, except for when I have had to sell machines, or had
friends pass away. I'm a reasonably smart fellow who requires a lot of brain
input and this hobby has certainly provided that. Not a week goes by that I
don't learn several new things, or even seen something I've never seen before.
I love it, and am grateful to have this wonderful interest!
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