Music – Big Bands

Dick especially, but Hazel Mae also, loved swing music from the Big Band era. He had a large collection of 78s (the purist’s media for the original recording) stored in a large glass enclosed display case. He organized the records into albums that held maybe a dozen or more (20?) of the 78s. He would decorate the outside of each binder spine to show the name of the artist represented by the enclosed records. He favored Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Artie Show, some of the Dorsey tunes, etc. He fancied himself a drummer and had a little practice pad, sticks and wires that he would play along with the songs.

I can remember as a young teenager, maybe 8th or 9th grade, going out with Dad on Saturday mornings to scavenge the used records bins at Clarkins on South Arlington Street and other stores. These would be mostly 45s. The records had been removed from jute boxes around town – rotated out with fresh product. Dad would let me pick out a few pop tunes from the 50s to buy and he would search for some big band music to add to his collection. Once I got my driver’s license (I qualified at 15 because Dad was disabled and Mom needed help driving) I became his designated driver for these excursions.