My Vinyl Collection & More (#AtoZChallenge Theme Reveal )

       It's that time of year!  April is almost here!  Inklings of spring are in the air as alphabet letters are appearing everywhere!

Yes, of course--it's time as the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge comes our way once again.   Here's what I'll be doing this April 2022...

        This upcoming Blogging from A to Z April Challenge will be my 13th go at the event that I first began in 2010.  Over the years I've had themes about marketing, Manhattan, movies, and myself.  One year my theme was all about blogging (why not?).  Last year's theme about rivers was one of my favorites since I learned so much as I researched it.  One thing we've seen over the course of hundreds of bloggers doing the Challenge for over a decade now is that there are a myriad of topics than can be blogged about.  That's what makes blogging so intriguing and informational.

        For my 2022 theme I will return to a favorite topic:  Music.  Or more specifically:  My music in the form of my music collection.  This theme was inspired by G.B. Miller in a post he put up in 2016 where he came up with the idea of exploring his CD collection.  That was an idea that immediately struck me as a good idea for me to pursue one year.  And this is the year!

About 300 of my remaining vinyl albums

      My music collection consists of thousands of vinyls, cassettes, and CDs with a sprinkling of a few 8 track cartridges.  My focus in my Challenge theme will be mostly my vinyl LP collection.  Over the years I've gotten rid of over half of the LPs I've accumulated in over a fifty year period.  For many years I haven't had a turntable on which to play them, but I've still kept many records that were meaningful to me in hopes that someday I might be listening to them again.  For now my remaining records reside in the top of my bedroom closet.  Waiting.

        Embarking on this Vinyl Collection theme gave me an opportunity to organize the records into alphabetical order (like I used to have them back when I listened to them regularly).  I was also reminded about what records still remained and how many of my treasured old albums I had gotten rid of.   In the early nineties I began my first purge when I began selling off my albums individually at fairly decent collector prices.  That's when albums like the Beatles, the Beach Boys, and many of the more marketable albums flew out of my possession  The money was helpful at the time, but now I kind of wish I had those albums back.

        Later--about ten years ago--I sold off four boxes of 200 albums to a guy that had a used record shop.  I made a firm offer of $200 for the lot. That was far more than I would have gotten at a yard sale or otherwise.  The dealer offered far less, but I didn't budge.  He climbed in his truck as if to leave then stepped out again with $200 cash in hand and walked away with the records.  He knew he had gotten a decent deal as there were some real gems in the collection and all in quite good condition.  I ended up with cash that was nice to have, but once again I do wish I had those records back.

        During the course of April I am going to do give you an overview of some highlights of my album collection from the standpoints of my personal favorites as well as the more quirky anomalies of my musical recordings.  Some entries will have personal stories about how I obtained the albums as well as why I chose to purchase some of them.  I've taken lots of photos that will be interspersed throughout the April posts so you can see what the albums look like.

        Most of the collection dates back forty years and more, weathering storage in not always the best of environments as well as a half dozen or so moves from one place to another.  Time has taken a toll on this collection, but still I'm somewhat proud of it.  Not that it's particularly valuable, but the collection contains a lot of fond memories as well as countless hours of listening pleasure for me.

         I hope readers will enjoy exploring the albums in this collection.  Maybe you will find some that you too have owned or have been curious to know more about.  I'll forewarn you that much of the collection is pretty weird and seemingly random, but for those who have an inkling of my musical tastes that might not be new knowledge.  Still, hopefully there will be something to interest many readers.

          This is all part of my life soundtrack--dear to me and possibly entertaining to the readers of Tossing It Out.  I do hope that you will join me on this musical journey in April.

What delights are to be found in this collection?