Sara Marberry

My sister Sue and I started collecting 45s around 1969 when I was 10 and she was 11. I don’t remember the first record I bought, but Sue remembers buying “Build Me Up Buttercup,” released by The Foundations in 1968. It was soon followed by such classics as “Down at Lulu’s” (Ohio Express), “Spinning Wheel” (Blood, Sweat, & Tears) “Crystal Blue Persuasion” (Tommy James and the Shondells), “American Woman” (Guess Who), “Julie Do Ya Love Me” (Bobby Sherman), and many other memorable pop singles from that time.

We saved our allowance and filled this record box with our shared collection to the point where it was bursting at the seams. I don’t recall how much each 45 cost, but likely it was less than a dollar. We played them on a low-tech blue and white portable record player that had a plastic handle on the side.

Sue and I spent many hours with our friends and cousins in our basement singing and dancing to these records. We played them so much in our house that it’s no surprise that our younger brother Eric also knows many of the words to the songs.

Somehow the box and its contents ended up in my possession, likely because I’m the DJ in the family. Long before there were digital music players, I was spinning these records on a portable record player I bought from Sharper Image for our little kids at Grandma and Grandpa’s house.

I don’t play them that much anymore, but every once and a while, I bring the record box and player to a family event and all of us big kids sing and dance just like it was 1969.