I'm surpised Tom (Curmudgeon) hasn't posted. His father bought him a couple LPs -- Ewan MacColl and A.L. Lloyd. The die was cast.

I was talking to Jeri yesterday about the thread. She talked about the recordings her mother had and it got me thinking. Until they started buying ME records (45s -- including story records like "Bambi" -- couldn't listen to the second side where Bambi's mother dies), there were no recordings around the house.

Lots of MUSIC around the house, but no recordings. My father had played clarinet and sax in a dance band in north-central Wisconsin in the '40s and still played a lot at home in Milwaukee (though a second shift job kept him from playing professionally). My mother played piano and we didn't have one, so she'd hijack my accordion when I was taking lessons (at age 5). We later (in the '60s) got a piano. My brother played trumpet, my sister played piano. I took those accordion lessons, then clarinet lessons and played with the school band.

We all sang -- at home, at church, in the car, together or alone. (Lutherans, fer-pete's-sake.) I learned harmony by osmosis and didn't realize it til about 25 years ago.

Polkas were the folk music of my youth -- Wisconsin, doncha know.

But no records around the house until I started buying them or they were purchased for me.

Strange, now that I think about it.

Linn