Things I miss doing:
Going into a record store and thumbing through all the new and used soundtracks to find a treasure.
Going into a video store and perusing new and old releases.
Yes, my fingers do the "going" nowadays at discogs.com or amazon.com or whatever other service site I may find myself being directed toward...but none of it matches the pleasure of browsing and looking at what other people are finding fascinating.
Agree. I found some of the oddest items in my collection that way. Local cast recordings of original musicals.
I am pretty sure I regaled everyone with this story, but I have never had a better shopping experience than one I had in London in 1983. When I was a journalism instructor at Defense Information School, I was sent to a high-security Air Force base in Luton, north of London, to teach a three-day basics course in news and feature writing for volunteers who worked in the high-security area of the site. Base journalists weren't allowed to go into those areas, so they needed someone within those sites who could write stories about unclassified things that impacted those security personnel. That way, they could read about themselves in the base newspaper.
I wrangled two extra days for a trip to London where I hoped I'd find some great movie soundtracks (in 1983, there weren't a lot of options of finding some incredible re-releases that were hitting the specialty markets...not in Indianapolis, anyway).
I spent an entire day scouring London for record stores and found very little to satisfy my wants. Tired and discouraged, I was only interested in getting back to my hotel. To do that, I had to figure where I was in relation to the tube station at Trafalgar Square.
I stopped on a corner and consulted my street map. I had to find where I was and then find where I should go for the station.
As I looked around, my eyes saw a window stenciled with "58 Dean Street...We Specialize in film soundtracks and theatrical recordings" or some similar wording.
I was practically numb as I walked over, went inside and beheld rows and rows of bins filled with records.
I pigged out. Bought 35 LPs..some of which I would never have believed I could get.
