Sometime in 1965 I believe it was, we moved to the house on "the river road". Sadly, the house doesn't exist anymore. The only photo of the house I've been able to find in my collections is below. That's me in the photo, on my first day of school! That big cornucopia type thing was full of candies and sweets! I had a baby brother by then , too. I am wearing the same blue blazer I'd worn on my fourth birthday picture.
I recall that not too long after we had moved in to this house, we got a new TV [a black and white DUMONT console] and sometime around 1967 or 1968 we got a new STEREO. It was a PHILIPS console model!
In those days, my brother and I were taken to one of the neighbours to be babysat when Mom and Dad were at work. The babysitter's son had all kinds of speakers interconnected and a homemade switching/routing panel. He's also had an amplifier connected that he got from an old console or floor model radio. He'd run his portable cassette through the amp, and flick the switrch[es] to turn on whatever speakers he wanted on.. That further fueled me electronic curiosity.
The babysitter's son-in-law had an old Muntz 4-track unit, originally installed in his green 1963 Ford, and then later installed in his home-made RV, an old school bus, painted red and modified to be a camper. For whatever reason, I've always been fascinated with tape and tape recorders and players.
I'm not sure when I first had my own record player. My Mom gave me her old "suitcase style" portable. It was a manual unit, had a 7" felt covered platter [with a built in 45 centre adapter that you had to stick some Kleenex under so it would stay up]. It was a four speed unit... 16, 33, 45, 78. I remember I'd take it with me to the babysitters, or if we were going out visiting to family friends.
One of the family friends that we'd go visit gave me a BSR automatic record player with an attached one tubed/valved amplifier with tone and volume controls. It was all in a cardboard box. It was my first automatic record player and my first electronics hobby project! It didn't even have speakers!
On one of my many internet wandering travels, I happened upon a photo of a deck very similar to the one I had.
The photo above has been reproduced by permission of TONY FOSTER. You can check out his site by clicking on the link here. Here in Canada [and North America as far as I can tell] 7" 45 rpm singles had their centre punched out.
Sometimes 7" 45 RPM singles were known as "do-nut" records because of the shape with the hole in the middle. For me, the "spider" type adapter in the photo below on the right, was the preferable device. An adapter that just sat on the centre spindle of the turntable allowed for too much WOW when the record was off centre.
Note that the particular record shown below is a MONO mix.
AM top 40 was one of the biggest influence on my musical tastes. 1050 [ten-fifty] CHUM, 680 CFTR, 1280 CHAM, even 570 CHYM or 1460 CJOY were spots on the dial for my radio! At night, I'd tune in to such stations as 1220 WGAR [Cleveland, Ohio], 1190 WOWO [Fort Wayne, Indianna], and although it's a country and western station, there were times I could pick up 650 WSM [Nashville, Tennessee], the home of The Grand Ole Opry. WSM is one of the few remaining AM stations to broadcast music.
Since my funds were limited, one of the most economical sources of top 40 recorded music was the most recent K-TEL compilation. I have a number of these in my own vinyl archives; they are either original purchases or re-buys from yardsales or charity type shops.
