When I was young, the grandson of our land lord owned many
luxuries, such as camera, bicycle, and turntable.
I admired his turntable and phonograph records very much.
After getting my first pay package, I bought a watch that I needed to use.
After that, I bought a turntable.
The turntable could be operated by both alternating current and
battery.
From then, I started to buy phonograph records.
I spent 3 to 5 dollars for a record. As my salary was low then, I dared not
to spend much money on buying the records.
When the musical cassette became popular, I started to buy cassettes and
stop buying records.
After retiring, I sometimes went to the flea market in Chinatown during weekend.
One day, I found those old phonograph records in the market.
When the seller told me that the record was a dollar each,
I started to look for records of Teochew Opera.
Those people passing by always wondered that there were still
phonograph records. But they did not buy because they did not
have the turntable anymore.
The first turntable I bought more than forty years ago was spoilt and
threw away. But my second turntable was still in good working condition.
The seller used to call me when he had any records of Teochew Opera.
He would keep them for me.
When I told my son Solomon about my good old days in listening to
the phonograph records, he started to be fond of the antique.
But his mother thought differently. There was a day when we bought
almost a hundred pieces of records home; his mother screamed that
we collected bundles of rubbish.
I was worried that those 'antiques' I collected would be thrown away
when I passed away. But I once heard my son told me, "Dad, don't
be worried, I would keep them."
I once met a peopled who was selecting the records of Cantonese Opera.
He told me that we preserve the historical relics by just spending a dollar.
Although we did not visit the flea market for about two year, we had
collected about six hundred pieces of records.
