John Smyth wrote:

>The Year in Classical Vinyl
>
>This is my second year into vinyl after 20 years of the CD. No regrets
>whatsoever and-having recently heard my first CD in as much as a year
>and a half-I've still no regrets, but more on that later.  ...

When I was growing up in the 1940's, my mother had a Model T Ford,
and my father had a large collection of 78's.

My mother's Model T Ford has evolved into a well engineered and much
safer means of transportation and I feel no nostalgia for the Model
T or desire to own or drive one.

I grew up listening to 78's and I cannot for the life of me understand
the attraction of changing sides of a playing disc every 4 minutes -
even if you bought the best technology to bear and managed to get decent
sound.

I think every path in life has two directions - forward and backward -
and all of us choose to move in one of those directions.  But reading
Mr Smyth's post makes me ask myself if I would like to go back in time
and once again ride in my mother's Model T or listen to my father's 78
rpm collection.

And I think if I could go back and be a child and experience again my
parent's love as well as other childhood wonders and pleasures, I would
take the Model T and the 78 discs as part of that return to gentler times
and simple pleasures.

But, since I can't go back, I find the Model T and the 78 discs to be
part of a time in my life that is past and I have feel no desire to buy
a Model T and drive it around town, nor do I want to sit listening to
old sounds on old records.

I wish Mr Smyth good listening as he travels backward towards a listening
experience that I would not find enjoyable.

Dave Harman
El Paso, TX