Garage Sale Find

I stopped at a garage sale this weekend, always on the lookout for obscure ephemera and old records. Most of the time, old records at garage sales fall into one of several genres:

• Christmas
• Gospel 
• I've Never Heard Of That Singer

And often they are

• Overpriced
• Musty
• Scratched up
• Missing the sleeve
• Missing the record
• A laserdisc

But sometimes you get lucky and find things that are interesting enough to want, in good enough shape that you could imagine holding on to it and playing it sometimes, and cheap enough to take a chance on if you're not sure.

At this garage sale, they were selling a box of records that included a bunch of recordable records.  These were used by people back in the 30s and 40s maybe? And were sold with a variety of uses advertised, including recording things off the radio, and recording messages to send to loved ones.  A little research revealed that there used to be vending machines in various touristy places, like atop the Empire State Building, where you could record a message and have the record come out with your recorded voice on it.  Then, apparently you could send it home as a vocal post card.

Most of these recordable records were either blank or really beat up, but I did find one that had tracks on it, and looked playable without too much trouble.  My daughter and I cleaned it up as best as we could and put it on the turntable...

And it was apparently some music recorded off the radio back in the forties or so.  Big band kind of stuff.  I was hoping for voices from beyond the grave.  Like this: https://archive.org/details/James_Whitcomb_Riley-Out_To_Old_Aunt_Marys

Maybe next time.