GROWING UP ME -

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

9:28 PM

Juke Boxes

Old school jukebox that not only had 45 rpm's but also let you actually see them being selected and played. I loved to watch them operate and I loved eating in restaurants that had them. You got two plays per quarter, which was kind of a lot if your mom only gave you $3 or $4 for the whole afternoon, including lunch. I loved eating out with my friends because we all liked a lot of the same songs so each of us would choose two different songs and between all of us, we could get an hour or so of our favorite tunes. I miss these. A few places still have them but now it costs $1.00 for three or four plays which is much more expensive. I'm not likely to drop a dollar for just three or four songs. But back when music wasn't so plentiful and easy to carry around with you, having a way to hear your favorite tunes while out eating at a restaurant or drug store was quite a big deal.

Random Related Memory: My jr. high friends and I going to the Across the Street resaurant, where they had curly fries, ordering by phone from your botth, and a great jukebox. We all would play "Roller Coaster because we heard a rumor that the screaming you could hear in the background was from a girl who was murdered in the studio while they were recording the song. LOLOL Because there was absolutely no other more logical reason why they included the sound of screaming on a recording titled ROLLER COASTER. And because girls were often randomly murdered in studios where recordings are taking place in the 60's, AND, when that happened, the record execs totally used the tape that was rolling at the time for mass distribution of the song.

Wow. My friends and I sure were street smart when we were 14. They probably should have bent the rules and let us vote. We clearly had a firm grasp of all things common sense. LOLOL