Do you have storage areas in your house where you keep old things that you never use again?

One of my storage areas is the cabinet above my wife’s closet.  That is where I’ve kepy my entire album collection since I was a child.

I’ve boxed and moved these LPs several times over the years as I moved.  The last time I played any vinyl was about 15 years ago.  That’s when we purchased a new component for the entertainment center which needed its own shelf.  The turntable had to go—above my wife’s closet.

Since then, I have a mini-museum hidden from the public.  Until we had the house painted this year.

Having to box items before the painters came in provided us an opportunity to really clean house.

In recent years, I’ve learned to part with lots of material items.  Just this weekend, I discarded boxes of financial documents such as utility bills and pay stubs going back to 1990.  I mean, why was I saving this stuff?

Just as my wife and I donated hundreds of books to used bookstores earlier this month, I decided the time had come to look at my record collection one last time, and only keep the most special albums.

I have an extensive collection of Bernard Herrmann soundtracks.  He’s my favorite film composer; most people know his music if not his name.  You can hear his scores in “Psycho” and “Citizen Kane.”  So I didn’t let any of those go.

Then I have a small collection of Frank Sinatra albums.  Unlike the Herrmann albums which I bought brand new, the Sinatra stuff was bought used in the 1990’s when I first got hooked into the crooner.  Those I kept as well.

I found a local record store who accepted donations and transported four banker’s boxes full of albums over there.  My wife and I were expecting to drop off the boxes and drive off.

At Atomic Records in Burbank, however, we didn’t leave so quickly.  It turns out that Nick and his brother who have run the store for 30 years actually pay money for records that they can sell in their store.

More unexpected than that was Nick himself.  As we stood outside his loading dock in the alley, like a jeweler using a loop, he meticulously looked at every album, sometimes removing the album from its sleeve to check its condition, often commenting on the artist.

In the 45 minutes this process took, it was as if Ralph Edwards had come back from the dead to surprise me, “Brian, this is your life!”  Nick was a music archaeologist examining my stash, and I was reviewing the evolution of my musical tastes, from boy to man.

There were two albums from The Royal Guardians, a rock group whose 1966 hit song “Snoopy vs. the Red Baron” was the impetus for me to buy their music.  Comedy albums from Don Rickles, and one from Mickey Katz whose son, Joel Grey, is more well known.  

Nick regaled us with stories of studio musicians who worked on some of these albums, including a drummer who continued practicing his craft until his death at 90,whose house was across from the alley from the record store.

What made this experience even more memorable was that the house where I grew up as a baby was behind that old musician’s house.  Incredible.

Nick told us about his house in Japan (his wife is Japanese) and how the vinyl produced there is superior in quality than those manufactured in the states.  I asked him how large of a collection has he ever seen.  The biggest ones have been around 10,000 records which requires renting a truck to haul the stuff back to his store.

I felt pride when Nick finished perusing my lifetime of rccords and had compiled a much larger pile of those he could sell versus those who he couldn’t.

“What happens to those you can’t sell, Nick?  Do you throw them away?” I asked.

“Oh no,” he replied.  “I place them outside my store at night, and when I return the next morning, they’re gone.”

It made me feel good that the music that brought me enjoyment since I was a little boy, could bring enjoyment to others.  What treasures do you have hidden in your home which could brighten other people’s lives?