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I have been wondering about doing another link post about things that are news to me. There was the great story about how the FCC pussied out on allowing free high speed internet access. But today I want link to another kind of news story.

A month or so ago I posted a cartoon music video about a song that was HUGE when I was a little kid. Well to be honest music has always been huge to a certain age set. Back when I was about 11 or so I would ride my bicycle over to the record store. The little shop was on the oldest block in town, a few doors down from the bank, across the road from the hugely popular Newberry's Department Store and just up the street from J.C. Penny's.

The record store itself was like a treasure for impressionable and unattended youth like myself. It was laid out in tiers so that once inside the doors you had to climb up levels of record displays and bins of vinyl discs of musical goodness. Yes this was just before the modern wonder that was 8 track tapes, a generation before CDs and a lifetime prior to the Sci-Fi bullshit thought of Blue tooth.

A week was not complete that did not include a trip to the old record store. Where minty fresh LPs promised a glimpse into the cool and hip world of rock and roll. Names like Grand Funk, BTO, and CCR ruled this small rural treasure.

The old record shop closed decades ago. As the years passed I never fail to glance over at the different businesses that have filled the gap left in my life. Finally a flower shop was in that old multi-tiered space. I can't even imagine what the designers had in mind in making a multi-layered store, nor how the business had escaped ADA accessibility standards. But the different levels still remained when I went in the old building last Spring, asking the owners to place cards on prom corsages that remind teens to not drink and drive.

While the old J.C. Pennys and Newberrys folded their tents not long after the record store went out of business, the old buildings remained as monuments to the safe haven that used to be my home town. In an aging community that is now more recognized for the empty lots downtown that denote the once stellar building sites in this gem of an ancient oil baron's hay day. These old stores now seem to belong more to the people in the community that have lived here for generations. Where residents have watched the old town slowly turn from splendor to ruin.

Time finally caught up with my old record store. Today that building burned to the ground. ON the other hand you can see my office from the footage shot by the News helicopter!