Remember when?

[marv2]

I have frequently said that I [[and you, apparently) was blessed to have been born when I was. Ten years earlier and I'd have dealt with the blowback of the Civil Rights Movement [[and probably died, with my level of rage). And ten years later and I would have dealt with the bangers and mixed-up generation that prefers to settle scores with bullets over fists [[or words).

As a teen, I was right in the sweet spot that had a glimmer of hope that hip hop was going to save the world through the unifying power of music, art, and dance. But break dancing fell by the wayside, rap battles in public spaces became shooting galleries, and graffiti artists preferred to stay on the illegal fringes of society.

Dreams of a country that I could believe in became a nightmare for most [[I didn't have it bad, personally). Hope and positivity gave way to drugs, gangs, self-hatred, a generation of children without fathers, a third of my brothers being incarcerated before they turned 30 years of age, and Donald Mother****ing Trump.

Wow. Didn't see that coming.

Oh yes we were blessed! I didn't know it quite as much then other than when I was in high school and I walked home down very nice tree lined streets with very nice large, older homes sitting back from well kept lawns. Whereas many of my other classmates took city buses back across town to some pretty rough areas. You know...."the Ghetto". The high school was the oldest in the city and was built for the children of wealthy white families in 1913. There was a little resentment from guys on my basketball team, but I didn't give a shit. They could all hang out and go home together even if it was on the city buses.

So anyway. We were, as kids somewhat aware of the Civil Rights movement,but I can honestly say I was too young to understand it. There were no guns or gangs around and we walked or biked just about anywhere a kid from age 7-14 wanted to go. I do remember teachers and other adults promising things were going to be much better or greater for my generation and we believed them.

Years later, when I was in college out West in Denver, I can remember walking through Denver's City Park with my best friend at the time, Rob Tabon of the Bronx, NY. He had a huge boom box and it was blasting out the top new jam Grandmaster Flash and the Furious 5's "The Message" The song knocked me out upon first hearing it. It was like...finally "My Music" the guys in the group were about my age. What was strange though was my buddy Rob actually lived the lyrics, where as I only mostly knew about that kind of life from friends or people I'd seen on the other side of town growing up. I grew up believing you could do anything you wanted if you really wanted to!

Now as an adult, I see and know pretty much the game here in America. Ask yourself this. Why is it that when we apply for a job, we have to be qualified and have some related experience, but for the top job in the country, a man can be a complete novice
[[some say idiot) and get the President's job?

[Jerry Oz]

I know why, just like you do. They ran a poll yesterday that revealed one of the main reasons people voted for Big Stinky was "fear of diversity". If we can't even call it what it is, how can we face it?

Per your post, I will never forget my high school friend, Mac, who worked along with me at McDonald's. I was digging "Disco Nights", "For Those Who Like To Groove", and "Theme From The Black Hole" when he discovered "Rapper's Delight". He loved that record. He was spitting lyrics to the extended version before it was blowing up the radio. I scratched my head about rap at first. "The Message", along with "Planet Rock" [[and Tommy Boy Records in general) converted me a couple of years later. I still have a ton of songs on wax that aren't available on digital.

Getting back to remembering when, I challenge you to play an album if you haven't done it for a while. Records still sound and feel wonderful. I deceived myself into believing that their fidelity was somehow inferior to digital. It's different, but definitely not inferior.

[marv2]

I know why, just like you do. They ran a poll yesterday that revealed one of the main reasons people voted for Big Stinky was "fear of diversity". If we can't even call it what it is, how can we face it?

Per your post, I will never forget my high school friend, Mac, who worked along with me at McDonald's. I was digging "Disco Nights", "For Those Who Like To Groove", and "Theme From The Black Hole" when he discovered "Rapper's Delight". He loved that record. He was spitting lyrics to the extended version before it was blowing up the radio. I scratched my head about rap at first. "The Message", along with "Planet Rock" [[and Tommy Boy Records in general) converted me a couple of years later. I still have a ton of songs on wax that aren't available on digital.

Getting back to remembering when, I challenge you to play an album if you haven't done it for a while. Records still sound and feel wonderful. I deceived myself into believing that their fidelity was somehow inferior to digital. It's different, but definitely not inferior.

Vinyl is KING and always will be! I have about 2,400 vinyl albums stored away at my parents home. They've been there now over 20 years. Another oh I say 100 more are in a storage unit. I keep saying I am going to build a custom storage system for them, but haven't gotten around to it yet. I listen to many of my favorite old songs on Youtube now mostly. I miss going to check out the stacks at record stores. When I first heard "Rapper's Delight" I was like "Hey, that's Chic's "Good Times" that they are rapping over." LOL!

Regarding Big Stinky and the "fear of diversity". It is an unfounded fear of what some call white genocide something that has most to do with low birthrates than anything sinister planned to hurt white people. Doesn't matter, you cannot get some of these Trump supports to believe otherwise. When you heard "Take our country back" and "make America great again" they really are talking about "us vs them" which is bullshit. I have friends who happen to be white that voted for Trump[[most of them are now too ashamed to admit it LOL), but they did not vote for him because they hold any racist beliefs. They actually believed that he would bring prosperity back to the middle class. Yeah, right. A billionaire that was born with a silver spoon in his mouth is going to understand and care about the lives of working people!

[Jerry Oz]

Nobody has the balls to ask him why he still manufactures his signature items overseas. They also don't hold him to task about what happens to the current jobs when he magically produces thousands of new ones out of thin air. By my math, in a period of nearly full employment, if he brings so many new factory jobs, then there will be nobody available for the low paying jobs they are currently working. Especially since he's deporting undocumented immigrants at a record rate. Ultimately, the current employers would have to raise their pay rates to attract and keep people, which will drive up inflation. Raising the minimum wage was a Democratic platform item that would have benefited millions of Trump voters, by the way. They rejected it, though because they wanted to make Amerikkka hate again.

Wonder how that's working for them?

[marv2]

Nobody has the balls to ask him why he still manufactures his signature items overseas. They also don't hold him to task about what happens to the current jobs when he magically produces thousands of new ones out of thin air. By my math, in a period of nearly full employment, if he brings so many new factory jobs, then there will be nobody available for the low paying jobs they are currently working. Especially since he's deporting undocumented immigrants at a record rate. Ultimately, the current employers would have to raise their pay rates to attract and keep people, which will drive up inflation. Raising the minimum wage was a Democratic platform item that would have benefited millions of Trump voters, by the way. They rejected it, though because they wanted to make Amerikkka hate again.

Wonder how that's working for them?

It's not working too well because heroin and fentanyl deaths and overdoses are way up!

[Jerry Oz]

It's so crazy. Crack in the hood? Crime problem. Lock them up! Heroin problem in the suburbs? It's a health crisis. Get those kids a doctor [[and put Narcan in the pockets of every cop, school nurse, EMT, and youth counselor.

Sadly, I remember walking to the drug store near my grandma's old home and seeing needles in the gutters as I sped past the junkies in the abandoned store fronts as the smell of piss and shit wafted into the street. The city fixed up that part of town long ago, but the horror of that memory is as fresh as if it was yesterday. No way I would ever touch a pipe or a syringe after that!

[marv2]

It's so crazy. Crack in the hood? Crime problem. Lock them up! Heroin problem in the suburbs? It's a health crisis. Get those kids a doctor [[and put Narcan in the pockets of every cop, school nurse, EMT, and youth counselor.

Sadly, I remember walking to the drug store near my grandma's old home and seeing needles in the gutters as I sped past the junkies in the abandoned store fronts as the smell of piss and shit wafted into the street. The city fixed up that part of town long ago, but the horror of that memory is as fresh as if it was yesterday. No way I would ever touch a pipe or a syringe after that!

I remember one night in 1990, I was standing at a phone booth in Hoboken, NJ. I kept smelling piss for some reason. I looked down and it was piss all over the ground along with needles and the little crack vials that were everywhere in parts of Philly back in the mid-80s.

There are places in Kentucky and West Virginia where they are having problems trying to keep up with all of the funerals and burials of overdose victims. Some counties have run out of money to bury those that die suddenly from drugs and no insurance.

[arr&bee]

Great conversation guys,i too being a child of the sixties know exactly what you're talking about,i too remember going to school on the city bus[if you didn't have a car in d.c. It was the only way to get around]of course we walked most places as kids and loved it as our fathers worked too hard to be taking us three blocks up the street for the heck of it,and as you stated marv there were no gun toting street gangs back then that's not to say there weren't gangs but they were small potatoes compared to the craziness of today,i remember walking in the wrong hood with my boombox[sixties version]and getting chased lucky for me i was fast and they gave up,today i would've been shot in the back..yes we're blessed to have grown up during that era and don't get me started on vinyl[my first love]i stand at about[1300 albums]and still put em on the turntable whenever possible..vinyl forever!!

[Jerry Oz]

I'm sitting on about 700 albums, 300 cassettes, 500 CDs, and probably 40,000 digital files right now. Years ago, my Mom told me that one of my [[former) aunts was in the basement getting drunk with my dad. She looked around at my albums in the shelves and wondered who needed all of those records.

"Don't worry about who needs them or why," Pops told her. "He has them when he wants them." Translated, he told her to mind her own damned business. She changed the subject.

[arr&bee]

Hey remember when the stereos would be blasting in the summer and the neighbors with the biggest collections would battle it out[you play one,i play one]and the whole block would jam?

[Jerry Oz]

And the block parties where you could hang out with your friends until the Sun rose on Summer nights?

[arr&bee]

We had an old amusement park called[marshall hall]back in the day[this was wayyyyyyyyyy before the superparks of today]it was in maryland and was small and cozy,kinda like coney island.

[marv2]

Great conversation guys,i too being a child of the sixties know exactly what you're talking about,i too remember going to school on the city bus[if you didn't have a car in d.c. It was the only way to get around]of course we walked most places as kids and loved it as our fathers worked too hard to be taking us three blocks up the street for the heck of it,and as you stated marv there were no gun toting street gangs back then that's not to say there weren't gangs but they were small potatoes compared to the craziness of today,i remember walking in the wrong hood with my boombox[sixties version]and getting chased lucky for me i was fast and they gave up,today i would've been shot in the back..yes we're blessed to have grown up during that era and don't get me started on vinyl[my first love]i stand at about[1300 albums]and still put em on the turntable whenever possible..vinyl forever!!

JAI you know what I'm saying! I've learned that I have much in common with those that grew up in the same era, time frame as I just as much as those that grew up in the same geographical area.

[marv2]

I'm sitting on about 700 albums, 300 cassettes, 500 CDs, and probably 40,000 digital files right now. Years ago, my Mom told me that one of my [[former) aunts was in the basement getting drunk with my dad. She looked around at my albums in the shelves and wondered who needed all of those records.

"Don't worry about who needs them or why," Pops told her. "He has them when he wants them." Translated, he told her to mind her own damned business. She changed the subject.

If I add in my cassettes, CDs etc. I have about 3,000 works of music in total. I never really got into CD's like I did vinyl. I rarely let even relatives borrow my albums. My brother would come over and tape some things and each year I would make my mom her cassettes of holiday music from various artists in my collection.

[marv2]

Hey remember when the stereos would be blasting in the summer and the neighbors with the biggest collections would battle it out[you play one,i play one]and the whole block would jam?

Well not exactly on my street, but in the backyard BBQ's and sometimes in the park. Now in parts of Detroit [[I've done this myself), people would put their record players right in the window sills and play their records during warm weather. I use to do that with my Marvin Gaye album "I Want You".

[marv2]

And the block parties where you could hang out with your friends until the Sun rose on Summer nights?

Yes, I remember those block parties. The last one I went to was in 2010, in Manhattan. This huge housing project where they had basketball, BBQ and music, music, music

[marv2]

We had an old amusement park called[marshall hall]back in the day[this was wayyyyyyyyyy before the superparks of today]it was in maryland and was small and cozy,kinda like coney island.

I know the kind you mean. We had that at Walbridge Park in Toledo. They tore all of the amusement rides out by the mid to late sixties but the part is still beautiful. It runs along the Maumee River where my brother and I use to climb the rock ledges and watch the big paddle boats.

[arr&bee]

OH OF COURSE,I HAVE FRIENDS IN THE HOOD AS WELL AS FRIENDS ON THE GOLD COAST[yes D.C.has one]ONE THING I'VE ALWAYS FELT GOOD ABOUT WAS LIVING IN DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE CITY GROWING UP[UPTOWN-DOWNTOWN-IN DA HOOD OUT OF DA HOOD]YOU LEARN THE CITY AND YOU LEARN PEOPLE...ONE OF THE SADDEST MISCONCEPTIONS MADE BY FOLKS WHO ARE FORTUNATE ENOUGH TO HAVE NEVER LIVED HAND TO MOUTH IS THE ALL FOLKS IN THE[GHETTO?]ARE NOT TRYING TO DO ANY BETTER,I'VE HAD SOME HEATED ARGUMENTS ABOUT THAT...I LIVE IN THE GHETTO,THE GHETTO DOESN'T LIVE IN ME,AND I REMEMBER AS A KID THAT WE[GHETTO]KIDS MOST TIMES HAD BETTER MANNERS THAN SOME OF THE UPPER CRUST KIDS BUT FOR THE MOST PART KIDS WERE KIDS AND WE GOT ALONG.

[marv2]

OH OF COURSE,I HAVE FRIENDS IN THE HOOD AS WELL AS FRIENDS ON THE GOLD COAST[yes D.C.has one]ONE THING I'VE ALWAYS FELT GOOD ABOUT WAS LIVING IN DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE CITY GROWING UP[UPTOWN-DOWNTOWN-IN DA HOOD OUT OF DA HOOD]YOU LEARN THE CITY AND YOU LEARN PEOPLE...ONE OF THE SADDEST MISCONCEPTIONS MADE BY FOLKS WHO ARE FORTUNATE ENOUGH TO HAVE NEVER LIVED HAND TO MOUTH IS THE ALL FOLKS IN THE[GHETTO?]ARE NOT TRYING TO DO ANY BETTER,I'VE HAD SOME HEATED ARGUMENTS ABOUT THAT...I LIVE IN THE GHETTO,THE GHETTO DOESN'T LIVE IN ME,AND I REMEMBER AS A KID THAT WE[GHETTO]KIDS MOST TIMES HAD BETTER MANNERS THAN SOME OF THE UPPER CRUST KIDS BUT FOR THE MOST PART KIDS WERE KIDS AND WE GOT ALONG.

Exactly! My father got his job the year before I was born, my mother taught school, but my dad would take us to relatives that had it ROUGH! Sometimes we'd spend the night with them. We didn't care because we were kids and having fun. I had an Uncle that lived in Cabrini Green in Chicago in the sixties and we would go visit them. We had fun playing with all the kids. My grandmother use to say "you'll never know where you might have to live before you die" and "if a place was as bad as people say, then the people that live there couldn't"! These sayings stuck with me as I got older which is why I had friends in all kinds of living conditions good and bad. I have been to the roughest areas in America even the ones in D.C.!

[arr&bee]

HAAAAAAAA,MARV I LOVE TO RECALL THE TIMES THAT I WOULD BE ON MY WAY TO A PARTY AND TOOK A WRONG TURN[which wasn't deadly,but you could get beat up good]BUT BECAUSE I KNEW SOME OF THE KNUCKLE HEADS I WAS ABLE TO PASS THROUGH[of course I didn't make it a habit]WHEW!!

[Jerry Oz]

There was a city wide power outage in Memphis the day after my wife and I moved there in 1994. Having nothing else to do in the dark, we went for a ride in our new home. Well, there was a Kroger store that must have had a generator because the lights were on. We pulled up and man, it looked like a house party was going on. There was a project two blocks away and the store clearly had been neglected by the company. They still had stickers and stamped prices on everything!

The employees wore baseball caps and torn jeans. Our cashier was picking his hair when we checked out. And there were some rough looking folks everywhere. My wife, who grew up in a much tougher neighborhood than I did, was scared to death. Eyes were big as saucers. She grabbed my arm and pulled close enough that we could have shared my coat. I remember telling her that we would fade into the background if she stopped being obviously afraid. Thank God, nobody took offense to her and robbed us for the GP. LOL.

The first rule of not being punked is not to be a punk.

[arr&bee]

Haaaaaaaaaaaaaa,jerry my brother i can relate to that,i've had to[tough talk]my way out of a few situations.

[marv2]

HAAAAAAAA,MARV I LOVE TO RECALL THE TIMES THAT I WOULD BE ON MY WAY TO A PARTY AND TOOK A WRONG TURN[which wasn't deadly,but you could get beat up good]BUT BECAUSE I KNEW SOME OF THE KNUCKLE HEADS I WAS ABLE TO PASS THROUGH[of course I didn't make it a habit]WHEW!!

I remember I deliberately went to a New Year's Eve party I was invited to in Brooklyn years ago. I took my girlfriend and we went to the party up in this tiny apartment that had like a living room and a small kitchen. In the kitchen these two girls started fighting and one pulled a knife out of a pan of dressing LOL! A big ball of people rolled out into the living room knocking the Christmas tree over. There was no furniture in the room. I guess they moved it out for the party. I got us out of there and did not look back. LOL!!!!

[marv2]

There was a city wide power outage in Memphis the day after my wife and I moved there in 1994. Having nothing else to do in the dark, we went for a ride in our new home. Well, there was a Kroger store that must have had a generator because the lights were on. We pulled up and man, it looked like a house party was going on. There was a project two blocks away and the store clearly had been neglected by the company. They still had stickers and stamped prices on everything!

The employees wore baseball caps and torn jeans. Our cashier was picking his hair when we checked out. And there were some rough looking folks everywhere. My wife, who grew up in a much tougher neighborhood than I did, was scared to death. Eyes were big as saucers. She grabbed my arm and pulled close enough that we could have shared my coat. I remember telling her that we would fade into the background if she stopped being obviously afraid. Thank God, nobody took offense to her and robbed us for the GP. LOL.

The first rule of not being punked is not to be a punk.

Man, we had some similar experiences. I remember the day before New Year's Eve 1988, me and my then girlfriend from West Philly went to this restaurant, "Puglia's" in Little Italy in NYC. A buddy recommended it. We were there in the afternoon and no one else other that the staff was there. Not long after sat down to go over the menu Genie Gotti [[John Gotti's brother) came by and was looking at us through the front window, hehehehehehehehehe. In those days, everyone knew who they were and what they looked liked. My girlfriend's knee would not stop shaking. Mr. Gotti came in and over to our side of the restaurant [[the place was divided in two halves by a wall) and just said "how you folks doing?" I said fine thank you and youself? He said great and I remember wishing him a Happy New Year. My girlfriend never said a word until after he'd left. She says "Get me out of here NOW!" LOL!

My problem has always been that I was too dumb to be scared. LOL!

[Jerry Oz]

Scared or not, you can't look like you're scared. Some people will rob you just because they think you expect them to. When I'm in crowds, I don't look in guys' eyes or at girls' butts. If you do, go ahead and expect somebody to be rolling up, hand in his pocket, and asking "You gotta problem? What you lookin' at MF?!"

[marv2]

Scared or not, you can't look like you're scared. Some people will rob you just because they think you expect them to. When I'm in crowds, I don't look in guys' eyes or at girls' butts. If you do, go ahead and expect somebody to be rolling up, hand in his pocket, and asking "You gotta problem? What you lookin' at MF?!"

Jerry if I could only tell you. I will tell you this. I and the kids I came up with could not be intimidated. They just couldn't. A bully could never survive at my school or around my crowd, they'd destroy him. It's hard to explain but we all grew up knowing how to fight. Heck, fighting was our in and after school entertainment LOL! When I left home for college at 18, I went across country where I did not know one single person. I kid you not, I use to go to the roughest areas of whatever city I was in on purpose because older people where I worked always warned me not to. I went to East Cleveland, Camden, NJ, West and South Philly, Bed-Sty Brooklyn, the Bronx, Southside Chicago, Gary In, all over Detroit as it was home, Five Points in Denver, Baltimore, Boston and on and on and on. I got along just fine. No one really F'd with me except this group of kids in Chicago one time, but that is a long story. They backed off. LOL! Criminals would befriend me because I was not afraid or treated them disrespectfully.

[arr&bee]

scared or not, you can't look like you're scared. Some people will rob you just because they think you expect them to. When i'm in crowds, i don't look in guys' eyes or at girls' butts. If you do, go ahead and expect somebody to be rolling up, hand in his pocket, and asking "you gotta problem? What you lookin' at mf?!"

haaaaaaaaaa..i always look at girl's butts[still do,hehe]my sweet mother always told me when outnumbered-a good run is better than a bad stand,and i always remembered that whenever i was outnumbered like ten to one and not in my hood,a lot of my cousins were gangsters too but in the days when i was on[two heels]and not[four wheels]as long as i got away it wasn't worth a turf war.

[Jerry Oz]

haaaaaaaaaa..i always look at girl's butts[still do,hehe]my sweet mother always told me when outnumbered-a good run is better than a bad stand,and i always remembered that whenever i was outnumbered like ten to one and not in my hood,a lot of my cousins were gangsters too but in the days when i was on[two heels]and not[four wheels]as long as i got away it wasn't worth a turf war.

Those days are gone unless you can out run a bullet. Then again, these fools are more likely to shoot bystanders than the guy they are shooting at!

[marv2]

Those days are gone unless you can out run a bullet. Then again, these fools are more likely to shoot bystanders than the guy they are shooting at!

It is an all new ball game today. You can get shot over $ 5 today. I read recently a guy was shot and killed over a piece of chicken!

[Jerry Oz]

About 30 years ago, I was in a White Castle with a friend around midnight. My friend stepped back in line to let somebody get by and brushed into a Brother behind him. Dude said "Excuse you", and when my friend asked what he was talking about, he opened his coat to show a knife and said "I got something for both of y'all". We stared each other down and nothing came from it.

About 15 years ago, I fired a guy and he showed me a .22 that was in his pocket. That was scary as hell because it was just us two in the break room. Thank God I talked into walking to my desk because three of my guys knew something was up and stood behind him until he decided to leave.

[arr&bee]

well not exactly on my street, but in the backyard bbq's and sometimes in the park. Now in parts of detroit [[i've done this myself), people would put their record players right in the window sills and play their records during warm weather. I use to do that with my marvin gaye album "i want you".

yep marv,that's what i'm talking about,in the window sills,and i kinda wish i could do it today...you play one,i play one all in good musical fun!!

[robb_k]

Exactly! My father got his job the year before I was born, my mother taught school, but my dad would take us to relatives that had it ROUGH! Sometimes we'd spend the night with them. We didn't care because we were kids and having fun. I had an Uncle that lived in Cabrini Green in Chicago in the sixties and we would go visit them. We had fun playing with all the kids. My grandmother use to say "you'll never know where you might have to live before you die" and "if a place was as bad as people say, then the people that live there couldn't"! These sayings stuck with me as I got older which is why I had friends in all kinds of living conditions good and bad. I have been to the roughest areas in America even the ones in D.C.!

Cabrini-Green wasn't all that bad in the late '50s [[when Curtis Mayfield, Jerry and Billy Butler, and Otis Leavill lived there, and the early '60s. It got pretty bad near the end of the '60s and into the '70s.

[robb_k]

Jerry if I could only tell you. I will tell you this. I and the kids I came up with could not be intimidated. They just couldn't. A bully could never survive at my school or around my crowd, they'd destroy him. It's hard to explain but we all grew up knowing how to fight. Heck, fighting was our in and after school entertainment LOL! When I left home for college at 18, I went across country where I did not know one single person. I kid you not, I use to go to the roughest areas of whatever city I was in on purpose because older people where I worked always warned me not to. I went to East Cleveland, Camden, NJ, West and South Philly, Bed-Sty Brooklyn, the Bronx, Southside Chicago, Gary In, all over Detroit as it was home, Five Points in Denver, Baltimore, Boston and on and on and on. I got along just fine. No one really F'd with me except this group of kids in Chicago one time, but that is a long story. They backed off. LOL! Criminals would befriend me because I was not afraid or treated them disrespectfully.

I used to do something like that, on trips across regions of USA, looking for records. I went to a lot of the most dangerous areas in the big and middle-sized cities, looking in thrift stores, junk stores, furniture stores and record shop bargain bins, and record wholesalers.
East St. Louis, East Cleveland, parts of Chicago's Southwest Side, West Memphis, Hunter's Point in San Francisco and West Oakland and Richmond, Watts and Willowbrook and South Central in L.A., South Milwaukee, Black Bottom in Detroit, South Bronx and parts of Harlem in NYC, Newark, parts of D.C. Harbor Area in Baltimore, areas in central Philadelphia, Buffalo all were pretty tough.

You absolutely had to look like you felt comfortable in those places [[ act like you belong there [[but it can't really be faked), and knew what you were doing and where you were going. Looking around already makes you a target.

[marv2]

Cabrini-Green wasn't all that bad in the late '50s [[when Curtis Mayfield, Jerry and Billy Butler, and Otis Leavill lived there, and the early '60s. It got pretty bad near the end of the '60s and into the '70s.

Robb, as kids, we didn't think it was bad either. I can remember thinking it was great to have so many kids in one place to play with. Like it was one big house. LOL! There were no shootings and drugs back then of course.

[marv2]

I used to do something like that, on trips across regions of USA, looking for records. I went to a lot of the most dangerous areas in the big and middle-sized cities, looking in thrift stores, junk stores, furniture stores and record shop bargain bins, and record wholesalers.
East St. Louis, East Cleveland, parts of Chicago's Southwest Side, West Memphis, Hunter's Point in San Francisco and West Oakland and Richmond, Watts and Willowbrook and South Central in L.A., South Milwaukee, Black Bottom in Detroit, South Bronx and parts of Harlem in NYC, Newark, parts of D.C. Harbor Area in Baltimore, areas in central Philadelphia, Buffalo all were pretty tough.

You absolutely had to look like you felt comfortable in those places [[ act like you belong there [[but it can't really be faked), and knew what you were doing and where you were going. Looking around already makes you a target.

I never liked Newark, NJ! I use to go to as many places in Eastern Canada to find records on trips. I found a lot of good stuff especially in neighborhood shops in Montreal.

[arr&bee]

There was a hood in s.e. D.c.[valley green]that was so rough the city just figured it was better to tear it down,so they did and put up single family homes.

[marv2]

There was a hood in s.e. D.c.[valley green]that was so rough the city just figured it was better to tear it down,so they did and put up single family homes.

Sounds like the East side of Detroit and all of Camden, NJ.

[robb_k]

I never liked Newark, NJ! I use to go to as many places in Eastern Canada to find records on trips. I found a lot of good stuff especially in neighborhood shops in Montreal.

I used to takes trips across Canada in one direction and back across USA in the other, looking for records. I paid mostly 5 to 25¢ per 45 avg, and 50¢ to $1 for avg LP. That's how I amassed my large collection. I traded off a lot of my Canadian collection.

[arr&bee]

Sounds like you did pretty good,robb you da man!!

[marv2]

Sounds like you did pretty good,robb you da man!!

Robb did very well if he got records for those prices!

[Jerry Oz]

Man, I miss going shopping at the bargain bin record shops. We had several here when I was younger. Marv, I recall you saying that you went to some of my old haunts in threads a couple of years ago. There were shops on the OSU campus that would get cut outs, radio station promotional copies, and records that students from all over the country would sell for extra cash. I'd buy records that almost nobody ever knew about and some of those unknown albums had great songs on them. Thanks to the politics and money involved in radio promotion, a great song was not guaranteed to be heard any other way. It's probably the same today.

[arr&bee]

Hey jerry,great minds think alike,i too buy the unknown albums and just like you say some have very good songs buried on em,i go to the thrift stores when i can and find some good stuff at times for $1.00 and most are in mint condition,like the three[main ingredient]albums i found recently..thrift store forever!!

[marv2]

Man, I miss going shopping at the bargain bin record shops. We had several here when I was younger. Marv, I recall you saying that you went to some of my old haunts in threads a couple of years ago. There were shops on the OSU campus that would get cut outs, radio station promotional copies, and records that students from all over the country would sell for extra cash. I'd buy records that almost nobody ever knew about and some of those unknown albums had great songs on them. Thanks to the politics and money involved in radio promotion, a great song was not guaranteed to be heard any other way. It's probably the same today.

Man, they had some great stuff at the record stores up and down High Street in the 80s! I bought some classic Motown albums in good to VG condition that were half the price asked for in Goldmine! Was there a store called "School Kids Records" in Columbus or it may have been in Ann Arbor.

[marv2]

Hey jerry,great minds think alike,i too buy the unknown albums and just like you say some have very good songs buried on em,i go to the thrift stores when i can and find some good stuff at times for $1.00 and most are in mint condition,like the three[main ingredient]albums i found recently..thrift store forever!!

JAI, the Sunday morning flea markets on the lower east side of Manhattan are where you can find anything in almost minutes. I found 12" that I had looked for years for and did not want to special order from overseas. I found them in boxes people just dump right on the ground at the flea markets. They are just parking lots used for several hours on Sun. mornings in NYC.

[Jerry Oz]

Man, they had some great stuff at the record stores up and down High Street in the 80s! I bought some classic Motown albums in good to VG condition that were half the price asked for in Goldmine! Was there a store called "School Kids Records" in Columbus or it may have been in Ann Arbor.

Yeah, School Kids, Moe's, and Singin' Dog were the main three on High Street. Singin' Dog was my joint. On pay day, I would buy 2-5 records every week from them and one or two from a chain called Record & Tape Outlet. My first album was "Candy" by Con Funk Shun, which cost $3.25 at RTO. LOL. You're lucky to get a compressed format download for that these days.

[marv2]

Yeah, School Kids, Moe's, and Singin' Dog were the main three on High Street. Singin' Dog was my joint. On pay day, I would buy 2-5 records every week from them and one or two from a chain called Record & Tape Outlet. My first album was "Candy" by Con Funk Shun, which cost $3.25 at RTO. LOL. You're lucky to get a compressed format download for that these days.

Ah ha! My memory has not failed me yet. School Kids and the others, I would just piledge when I had time away from work. I would be in different cities for training in those days. I'd spend about a week in each. In the 80s I was mostly collecting albums from the 60s and some early 70s. I started collecting the top R&B albums from the 50s later on. I remember how cheap albums use to be brand new. I remember when Peaches in Toledo raised their sticker prices to $5.00 and some change. I knew then, I had to get a job LOL!
"Candy" by Con Funk Shun was one of my favorite albums my senior year in High School. I bought more albums from that year than any other. I organized my albums by year and artist in a notebook that I would update each year.

[marv2]

Some of the best used record stores in America were in the smaller cities in Pennsylvania like Lancaster, Harrisburg, Allentown and then those in Philly. The Princeton Record Exchange in Jersey was also tops! Detroit's were scattered all over the place.

[Jerry Oz]

I used to be able to afford to take chances. I bought great albums by Kiddo, Ozone, and the Skwares at shops like that. I never saw them stocked at the chain stores. If I saw anything produced by Reggie Andrews and Ndugu Chancler, I'd buy it. They used to produce the Dazz Band but they also did some under the radar outfits and more often than not, I liked those bands as well. I wonder if Soulful Detroit member Ndugu is the same guy?

I remember buying an album by a group called Zinc and another by Cashmere that were probably rare outside of Philly and each has one of my favorite songs is on it. I play them and memories flood back in. I have dozens of records like that [[and probably more that were completely forgettable; that's the risk you take when you buy records for a dollar or less).

[marv2]

I remember Ndugu Chancler. Have you ever bought an album solely based on the liking the cover? I bought this album by the Cars in college because of the cover. I use to see it in everybody's dorm room. LOL

We use to watch this local Detroit dance show called "The Scene". They would play records you didn't hear on the radio and a lot of techno funk music. Here's an example of a cut I heard on the show during the dance out closing segment wayyyy back in 1980. I liked it and went on a search for it.

[arr&bee]

Cool cover marv,the only store that i can stay in all day is the record store,here in maryland we have[memory lane records]and they have everything starting at three dollars,like the time i was leaving and as i turned to go out i looked down and there was[neverending impressions]i had only been looking that it for oh[25yrs]i almost passed out,and in mint condition,there is a special thrift store warehouse near me that has hundreds of lp's and 45's from[50 cents]talk about a kid in a candy store.