In July, my father visited his parents and came home with an armful (or three) of records from his and his brother's childhood.
Fleetwood Mac, George Harrison, Jim Croce...
Artists I've never heard of...bands whose names I don't recognize.... Nazareth, Canned Heat...
I've always romanticized old things...and these records from years before I was born are no different.
While I don't collect antiques, I love the feel of that which has been used...
of flea markets and thrift stores.
Of the rivets in an old record that was listened to twenty too many times. Or the tears staining the words of a love letter found in an old military jacket pocket.
In used book stores, I fall in love - with the signed cover jackets, with the words highlighted to help the reader remember. With the pages bent on paragraphs that meant something special to someone else.
When my school sells old CDs, I fall in love with music in a way I never usually do. I buy fifteen CDs for the price of one, listen to artists I've never even heard of.
In thrift stores, I guess the stories of the previous owners of a worn t-shirt, write stories in my mind about the reasons behind selling a fur coat, or a paint stained pair of jeans.
I fall in love with the history, despite always finding history classes boring.
I fall in love with the personality that an old notebook brings....the personality that I never found in history classes.
I become nostalgic for a time I was never a part of.
What about you? Do you romanticize history, or have you always been bored by the dates and names you didn't recognize?
<3
