A Little History

GETTING CENTERED: On Wednesday after Annabelle's art class, we headed to Seattle Center to supposedly meet a group of classmates to climb around on the cool play structure by MoPop.

As it turned out, only one other student showed up, but CJ, Annabelle and the other kid had fun climbing and swinging and eating syrupy, sugary frozen concoctions.  We hadn't been to this park in too long, so it was a fun visit.

Earlier in the afternoon, CJ and I had a little history lesson atop of Queen Anne Hill. We were visiting the new-ish Trader Joe's there, and noticed this poster on the outside of the building. 

Some of the spots mentioned were familiar to us (QA High School, the library, the bridge, the Farmer's Market, Seven Hills), but others were not. It made us want to check out the Pow Wow Tree, the Presbyterian church, and more.

Inside the store, near the bathrooms, there were some painted posters on the wall about Queen Anne and Seattle history.

Nice touch, Trader Joe's!

VINYL COLLECTION: Recently, during a trip to a Goodwill, we discovered Janice B. had apparently cleared out her record collection (that was the name written on dozens and dozens of albums, mostly from the '70s).

CJ came home with several.

Before that day, he'd not heard of either company. I told him that as a kid, I remember ads for those albums so well. I was so impressed that so many (AM radio!) hits could be on one single album!

Below, CJ tells you a bit about what he learned about the compilation companies. 

In the 1970s (and, to a lesser extent, the 60s and 80s), K-Tel and Ronco were popular distributors of compilation albums featuring several hit songs from varying artists. K-Tel released their first compilation album, 25 Country Hits, in 1966, while Ronco released their first, 20 Star Tracks, in 1972. Throughout the rest of the 70s, K-Tel and Ronco would continue to be rival record labels.

Earlier on in K-Tel and Ronco's time compiling songs for records, songs would often be cut down to 2:30 in length in order to fit all the songs. Later, at the expense of the number of songs, both companies would eventually trim less and less of the songs included on the compilations.

In 1979, Ronco ceased to release compilations, in favor of creating household appliances. Today, K-Tel still releases records (chronicled on the website Discogs).

EVERY ONCE IN AWHILE ... : I need some affirmation of why we're taking this windy road toward CJ and Annabelle's education. Today, this was my inspiration. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U