TOD:
My first memories of music on "record" were 78s...my grandfather lived with us and he had a radio console. The top lifted up. In the side were storage bins for the records. My favorites were Les Paul and Mary Ford ("The World is Waiting for the Sunrise" and "Whispering"). I was four or five years old.
I remember listening to, and doing, "The Bunny Hop" with my parents and their friends in our living room. That was one of the big radio hits of the early 1950s (don't pin me down and expect a year, 'cause I cannot remember THAT well).
On the radio, many things caught my fancy, but my first favorite female vocalist was Gale Storm.
To this day, I can remember how "connected" I felt to the whole world by listening to AM radio. What FM there was offered classical programming, to the best of my recollection. AM radio had a slew of stations, and my favorite was WFBC-Greenville, South Carolina. You'd get short news/sports/weather at the top of the hour and then you'd have a DJ taking phone calls or simply playing the top tunes of the day.
I got my first hi-fi (!) record player in 1959...a Christmas gift from Santa. There were some 45s including a Bing Crosby one featuring "White Christmas" backed with "Adeste Fidelis" in Latin. I LEARNED the song in Latin by listening to that 45 over and over and over. There was also a Crosby 45 with Hawaiian songs on it, including "Hawaiian Wedding Song." Another 45 was an Andy Williams recording.
Needless to say, this stuff got old rather quickly.
I discovered "film soundtracks" a few years later. The first soundtrack album I ever bought was "Exodus". Twas but the beginning of a lifetime obsessions!
There were a number of places to buy records in Greenville. The main store in downtown was called Mary's Record Shop. It had the booths like the one in Charlotte that MattH described. It also had the highest prices. I found cheaper recordings in cut-out bins (Georgia Gibbs and "The Hucklebuck", anyone?) in drug stores (I found "Bells Are Ringing" and "The Wizard of Oz" in such bins).
The biggest thing to happen in Greenville in the early 60s was the opening of a huge retail store called J.M. Fields. They had an entire aisle (on both sides) of recordings. MAN! They even had several bins devoted to soundtracks and Broadway. Their prices were really good, too.
And then, one day, in 1963, I happened to be with my mom at the Wade Hampton Mall (less than a quarter mile from the neighborhood we lived in) where she bought groceries at Winn-Dixie. I was roaming around and discovered a new shop had opened -- Carole's Record Shop.
I went in. I found the soundtrack section. I also noted that the prices were REALLY good (relative to my allowance). Carole's is where I bought almost all my records for the next seven years, including "To Kill A Mockingbird" (my first purchase there).
Ah, memories.
Toward the end of the 1960s, while I was still in college (circa 1968 or 69), Carole's relocated across Wade Hampton Boulevard (a four-laner) from the Mall. It was a specially built store with its own parking lot. The store was run by Mr. and Mrs. Green. They had a daughter -- Carole -- who worked the store, as well. I entered the Navy in 1970 and was never around Greenville much after that except for short visits. At some point in the mid-1970s, my mom wrote to tell me Mr. Green had died. I don't know how long the store remained open (or even if it is still there or not).
