Very interesting topic!!
Here's my story...when I was a young kid (roughly 5 years old) my parents had a record rack at the bottom of the staircase in our home. I had a portable record player that I always carried around with me, and one day I was coming down the stairs and decided to look through their record collection for something different to listen to then the kid records I had. As I looked through the rack, the cover of the ELVIS TODAY album caught my eye and being curious, I put the album on my record player to check it out. The VERY FIRST ELVIS PRESLEY song I had ever heard (that I could remember anyway) was T-R-O-U-B-L-E...and I never, EVER looked back!!!!
After that moment, I instantly "adopted" (stole? claimed? abducted? permanently borrowed?) all of the Elvis records my Mom and Dad had in that record rack and ran up to my room! As I grew older, we lived on the outskirts of the village and every week when I would receive my allowance, I would ride my bike into town to see what new Elvis records I could buy with my weekly earnings! So, while most young kids/teenagers were into sports or whatever, I could be found every week peddling home as fast as I could with my latest Elvis treasure!! It was amazing to me when I would drop the needle onto a new record with a song (songs) that I had never heard before.
Over the years, I have collected anything and everything Elvis that I could find (and afford) and of all the things that being an Elvis fan has brought to me in my life, there are 3 things that truly have meant the world to me...one of them was that I was asked by a local organization in my hometown to do a talk about Elvis and my Elvis collection including showing off some of my more prized memorabilia. The second was being interview by a regional newspaper doing an article on people with large and fascinating collections, and the third...well, being a member (and co-moderator) of TCB-World where I have met the most amazing people and made friendships that I certainly would never have made otherwise!!
It's now roughly 35 years later since 1977 when I first found that ELVIS TODAY album sitting in my folks record rack. And I continue to thank them as often as I can for having those Elvis records in the first place...without them, I may have never discovered Elvis Presley.
TCB!
Mike


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