Blame It On My Youth

In the crazy 1960s, when I was a gay youth & eventually an adventurous teenager, I had a rather zany hobby. I would make a weekly trip to JJ Newberry’s & FW Woolworth’s (both, 2 of the original American "5 & Dime” stores) in downtown Spokane. I would spend my allowance & money made from mowing lawns or baby sitting on the craziest records that I could find. I would find these treasures in the cut-out bin at both stores. They would have a small hole-punch in a corner of the record sleeve. I was, with no prompting, developing a keen sense of irony & camp. It was all about the hunt, & I would be rewarded by taking home & listening to my newest additions on my little record player in my room.

I had put together a nice collection of obscure Broadway & West End flops, & a nice smattering of truly demented recordings. Among my most treasured were the Broadway Original Cast Albums of Greenwillow (with Anthony Perkins), Henry, Sweet Henry & Goldilocks (with Elaine Stritch & Don Ameche). There was nothing as delicious as smoking a joint & listening to the golden sounds of The Barry Sisters, twin sisters that did over-ripe versions of Yiddish favorites & Yiddish versions of current hits, & then there was Yma Sumak, the mysterious Inca princess with the 5 octave range (rumors were that she was bogus & her name was actually backwards for Amy Camus & that she was from Staten Island) & always fun- The Hawaiian Beach Boys, who did traditional Hawaiian songs in the manner of the Beach Boys.

I eventually lost most of my LP collection when mighty Mt St Helen’s blew its top in May 1980. The Husband & I were living in an amazing apartment in the Browne’s Addition section of Spokane. This place was the top floor, which included the ballroom, of a grand old mansion on a bluff above the Spokane River. A few hours after the volcano erupted, Spokane’s noon looked like midnight, & we received a doomsday-like blanketing of gray ash up to our mid-calves. We were instructed to stay indoors during the 1st few days after the eruption. The Husband & I ate what ever we could find in the house & made our way through a lot of bottles of wine, while listening to my collection of the obscure, odd & campy records from my youth. Unfortunately, the ash got into everything, including records in their sleeves & scratched the recordings so badly, they could no longer be listened to. I have been thinking about this collection of late. I wonder what actually made it on to CD… but it wouldn’t be the same. It was all about going to the 5 & Dime & the hunt through the bins for my new found treasures.