"Put some records on and let's dance!" That's what my 1969 Talking PJ Barbie doll said—or at least that's how I remember it. She didn't talk for long, though, because I had the bright idea to take her in the bathtub with me. After that she just gargled/garbled for a little bit before her "talker" broke completely. Wah-wah.
She was groovy, though, in her mod orange and pink outfit and blonde pigtails. I actually think I liked her better silent, where I could supply the dialog.
Now I feel like such a geezer talking about records, but records were the thing until the 1980s when CDs came along. Now even those are passe, along with words like burn and rip (as it pertains to copying them).
I had an extensive record collection when I was a kid/teenager/young adult. As a kid, I spent many an allowance on buying 45s so I could hear the latest songs by favorite artists like The Beatles, The Bee Gees, various Motown groups, etc.
One day I came home from elementary school to find my toddler brother playing with my record player on the landing of the stairs. As he finished "listening to" (aka scratching) each record, he flung it like a Frisbee against the walls of the stairwell where it shattered to pieces! I cried inconsolably as I riffled through what was left in my records box and took stock of the damage.
As my allowance increased with each birthday (and we got a better stereo), I started buying 33 rpm LP records. Simon & Garfunkel, Carole King, James Taylor, and so many more, all the way through the early 1980s. Remember Columbia Record Club, anyone? You could get 12 albums for a penny, or something like that, when you joined the club, and then they'd send you one a month at regular prices until you canceled. I don't know how many times I joined/canceled record clubs, but that's how I amassed a lot of my collection as a young adult.
So when I saw some cute record-shaped mug rugs online recently, a wave of delight and nostalgia rushed over me and I knew I had to try making some for the next round of the Table Scraps Challenge.
Somehow, though, the month of March almost got away from me (I blame getting shingles, which I'm still currently dealing with). But yesterday I got it together and started making the first one. I was trying to recall cool label designs from the days of my 45s, and one that stood out in memory was the Apple label on Hey Jude/Revolution by The Beatles.
I had a scrap of vintage apple print, a thrift store find from a few years ago. Not perfect, but close enough to convey the idea, I think.
For the second one, I just picked a fun scrap of bright pink and orange. I wasn't consciously thinking of my old PJ Barbie's outfit, but may have been channeling that vibe.
These are fun to make! Kind of like potato chips, you don't want to stop at just one. The instructions I followed are HERE.
I posted a picture of these on my Facebook page today, and my (curious/destructive as a little kid) brother commented that they were "cool!" I didn't have the heart to bring up the record-flinging incident that he was probably too young to remember anyhow. He did go on to do stints as a radio disc jockey and mobile music DJ, so he learned something from the experience, I think. How to push his sister's buttons, if nothing else!
