New technology?!?

Here we are at Claire’s in Skellefteå. I could have written about the snow, the unseasonably warm weather, the hideously icy conditions, the walk, Rusty the dog etc. However, Jan, HarlingDarling, has written about this so I won’t echo her blip. Instead…
Claire’s daughter gave her a modern turntable for Christmas, so she could play the records that have followed her from home to home over all too many years. We decided to set it up and listen to some old music.
Since it is modern turntable with built in amp and speakers it was pretty much plug in, press the “on” button and we were ready to go. We tried to connect some external speakers but that required cables we didn’t have. So we made do…
I was really surprised by the feelings it generated in me. Partly it was the music of our (much) younger days but a large element was the routines of the technology of our youth. Place the vinyl disc on the turntable; lift the arm and move it over the record; lower the needle onto the intro groove and hear the crackle until the first notes appeared; listen to the tracks in the decided order. Half way through get up, turn the record over and listen to the second half.
Somehow a very different experience to clicking on a Spotify track or playlist.
I’ve always been a bit suspicious of the “back to vinyl” movement and thought it a bit Luddite. However, now I’m forced to reevaluate. The Luddites got a bad press but they actually had some reasonable ideas and now I’m thinking about two large cartons of records in our storeroom, all from the seventies and early eighties and not played for 37 years. Maybe it’s time to get a turntable. Back to the future…
PS If you enlarge the picture you can see the first record we played. Wonderful nostalgia!