1963 SEEBERG JUKE BOX ~ 200 SONGS
Contrary to what you may believe from reading my blogs, I’m actually a multifaceted person, I have a lot of other interests other than politics, although I really enjoy watching and commenting on the daily circus. The juke box pictured above, was not mine, but it is exactly like the one that sat in my man cave for many years. Before that it was in my garage, and I loved to listen to it while I polished and cleaned my various cars and trucks. It went well with my Corvette.
I didn’t just buy a juke box for the sake of having one. Juke boxes were a part of my life growing up, they were everywhere. The sound from a juke box is phenomenal. I chose this particular model because the amplifier was half vacuum tube and half solid state. That is the best combination possible for pure sound. I literally had to keep the volume very low in the house, these things were made to play in large open areas, at dances. By the way, my juke box was in a lot better shape than the one in the picture.
This particular model also played 45 rpm albums. You had to pay 10 cents for one song, and if I remember correctly to play an album with multiple songs it was 25 cents. That was a better deal than just one song. The store where I bought my juke box was in Seattle, called appropriately, Juke Box City. They had a massive inventory of 45 rpm records in very good condition, and I loaded it with songs from the 50’s through the 80’s. I’m of the persuasion that rock and roll died a slow death in the late 80’s.
After all of those years of great sounds, the sad day came in 2012, when my beloved juke box quit working. It would no longer stop and pick up a record, it simply went to one end of the track, and returned and parked. I tried for months to find someone to repair it. The old juke box guys were still around, but had no interest in coming out of retirement to save the old machine. I even offered to take it to them, no deal. Eventually, I called the thrift store and they sent a truck to pick it up. I had to say good by to an old friend.
So…….by now, you probably wondering why I am writing about this. Well, I found a replacement for my old juke box that’s way better. It doesn’t have the magnificent sound, although it has a surprisingly good sound, but it takes up very little space and it plays virtually every song ever recorded. All you have to do is verbally ask it, and it complies. It’s my Google Assistant. This little guy sits on the table next to my recliner, and does whatever I ask, from playing my favorite Dooby Brothers hit, to waking me up with a very pleasant sound. It has no moving parts and cost under a hundred dollars. Try buying a juke box for under a thousand. I can pick up my Google assistant and set it on my office desk if desired, moving a juke box up a flight of stairs is considerably more difficult, and finding a place to put it, even more difficult.
I have a tablet with a set of blue tooth headphones in my office. I set my tablet to Pandora radio, select the type of music I want to listen to, and my headphones sound every bit as good as my old juke box. All of this new fangled stuff works really good, 100% reliable, fits in a desk drawer, but it ain’t never going to replace the romantic nostalgia of a juke box, and the memories of slow dancing with your teenage sweetheart while listening to “Color my World”.
If you have gotten too busy to just sit and enjoy the music of your choice, this is a good time to do that. While we are ” social distancing” get reacquainted with your favorite old songs, chill and relax. It will relieve a lot of stress while you travel back in time amid your old memories. And…it’s free.
VERITAS VINCIT ~ LIVE FREE OR DIE
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