Day #6 A Song That Reminds Alfred of Somewhere

I  love the Ventures. I always have. I don't remember how I  came across them as a kid I just always enjoyed their sound.  Whenever I hear them it will always remind me of the now Defunct Record Stop in Ronkonkoma. This was the record store I most frequent from JR High and throughout  High School. It was a place where I picked up a shit ton of Vinyl. It was the only record store that I can recall that had a whole side of the store dedicated to $1 records. I would always buy any Venture records from there. To date I own about 13 Venture records....maybe 20.

I spent countless hours there. Just always fishing in those dollar bins,  bullshitting with the owner Bruce who would always be helpful and gave  his two cents about any record you would buy.  If it sucked he would let you know. If he thought your musical taste sucked he would never cut you a deal.

I remember after school my freshman and sophomore year I would walk to Record Stop and had to haggle a bit with Bruce about letting me see the bootlegs of live shows. Trying to act all cool and picking out something and then trying to race back to the school hoping I wouldn't miss the bus.

It is funny to think of the lengths I had to go through just to get music I wanted when I was a kid. Towards the end of Record Stop Bruce didn't even had to hide the bootlegs anymore. They were right there in the front of the register. He would let me just pick out any records I wanted and just charge me a significant percentage off the total price.

I found out through a friend of mine that the store was closed for good a couple of months ago. It kinda broke my heart to hear it. I visit other record stores now and they are about to see the same fate as Record Stop. Soon all my shopping will be online. Its heartless and too easy. I like going into a Record store. Fishing around the inventory, touching the actual records, the smell of the old cardboard covers.
The whole experience.

Looking now at my record collection, I would say more then 100 of the records i own came from Record Stop.

Wherever you are Bruce. Thanks for everything.