How The Addiction Started

I think a backstory is in order. I am obssessed with music. I do not drink alcohol, smoke pot, take drugs (well, I do take pain killers), gamble, shop for clothes (except when I need to), or any other vice you can think of. I do however purchase music weekly. It all started when I was around 6 years old. I grew up in the Bronx and Yonkers. During those early years I would go with my mother to work on Saturday mornings. She worked off Fordham Road with my grandmother, aunt and cousin. My grandmother was quite the entrepreneur for those days. And man was she making money. She opened up an electrolysis service, which if you don't know, is a place where women and men go to remove unwanted hair. Yeah, not the most sexy job you can have, but it did unbelievable business. My grandmother gave me a little room where I could play with my army men and be kept out of sight for the morning and afternoon. However, around lunchtime, my grandmother would come into my room, hand me $5 and tell me to walk across the street to the record store and buy two albums. Two albums for $5...you can't buy $5 with $5 today! Yesterday I wrote how The Beatles changed my life, and they did, but at that time of my life, I was obssessed with Elvis Presley. Everyone was. He and Buddy Holly were like the only white guys playing what used to be termed "black music" or as we like to call it, rock and roll. So week after week, I would go and buy Elvis records. This became an addiction and as the years rolled along, I kept the habit up. Even to this day, I get music weekly. When money is tight, I don't buy as much, but I continue the addiction and absolutely love it. When things go good in my life, I celebrate by buying music. When my birthday rolls around, I tell my kids to buy me music. That's it...that's my vice...what can I say? I love having a large collection of the most eclectic music you can imagine. I was playing a cd the other day of blaxploitation music from England...I mean, who has this sort of cd? I laugh sometimes when I play music thinking about things like that, and sometimes I cry over the beauty of the music and/or lyrics and sometimes I rejoice in the energy and sometimes I put something on and take it off immediately because I thought I was in the mood, but turns out I wasn't. And again, I'm not looking for converts out there. I cannot change the younger generation that has been brainwashed over the years with all the music videos, etc. All I want to do is open up your ears a little bit and try to suggest music to make your day, your life...and possibly your obssession as well. I have to go get my H1N1 shot...to be continued...oh, one more story from the Bronx...in these days when we are all too consumed, and rightfully so, with keeping a nearby bottle of purell to wipe off the germs, I cannot help but think of the days when I lived in the Bronx, and at 6 years old, my mother would send me around the corner to the pickle guy to buy some pickles. I would give him the money, tell him what I wanted, and this fat guy wearing an apron, would go outside the store to the wooden pickle barrel, filled to the top with pickles and spices, and he would reach in bare hand and hairy arms, and grab the pickles I needed to bring home. I mean, shit, can you imagine someone doing that today? And yet, nobody thought twice about it back then...yeah Dylan was oh so right...The Times They Are A Changing...