When I suddenly ended up with more free time than I knew what to do with, my friends tried to help.  Maddie had heard me talk about records.  I didn’t know much about them.  It was only in the last year that I ever sat down and listened to a record.  When she saw my interest peak, she gave me a small Jensen record player that she had extra.  It had internal speakers and she thought it sounded like shit.  I showed her the connections on the back and told her how to hook up real speakers to it but since she already had a better one, she said it was all mine.

I have collected some records from half priced books and bought a few from my friend that used to own the hemp store downtown.  Torie gave me my most recent record.  It’s called The Original 22 Countrypolitan hits.  It’s about as emotional as the greatest hits of Eddie Arnold that I bought because I used to listen to it with my grandma in the car.  I guess I had never had my heart broken at that time because I hear a lot more in these songs now.

I would be lying if I said each of those didn’t make me think of someone and cry just the slightest tear.