WHAT IS THAT?

WHAT IS IT?

Yesterday, at a party, my husband wore a T-shirt with one of these bad boys on it. He had purchased the shirt on a visit to the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame. One of the party guests said, “Cool shirt. Is that one of those yin yang things?”

My husband laughed. “Nope, not even close.” He began to ask the 30-and-under crowd what they thought it was.

“Something from Star Fleet,” one guy submitted.

“The logo from a new video game,” another suggested.

“A sex toy?” one of the girls ventured.

“Not a clue,” one twenty-something girl admitted.

A query of everyone under 40 confirmed what we suspected. Not a single one knew that this was a record insert used to play 45’s instead of 33 rpm albums. When the explanation was given, blank stares persisted.  

“They were also called spiders or adapters,” my husband continued. Still no recognition.  Only when one of the oldsters said “vinyl” did the youngsters nod in understanding.  Or at least a bit of understanding. Who can blame them? They probably wouldn’t recognize a Discman either.

You see, while many of us had HUGE collections of 45’s back in the day, those days are pretty much are gone. I’m not sure when record companies stopped making 45’s with their  “A” and “B” sides but those memories rocked my teenage world and I can still remember toting around a case specifically designed for 45’s.  Those were the days.