What Do Your Family And Friends Think Of Your Collection?

[snallast]

My initial family was incredibly understanding and they seemed to enjoy it (it was an early obsession) they even gave me several fantastic gramophones for Christmas! And they liked the music I played! As an adult I find it isn't really something I can share with a lot of people, sometimes the odd inventor or engineer is fascinated by the ingenious solutions of a mechanism but other than that I remember a party where the only music I had was a large horned gramophone playing early jazz and it resulted in someone saying "but all the records sound alike, its like you play the same one over and over again..."

When I wonder why I'm into it, there's that feeling of finding a world where things are constant, it's very soothing and exciting at the same time. Then there's the part where I don't really share it much, maybe that's part of what I'm looking for, something to disconnect from the rest of my life? Who knows! I never thought to ask a psychiatrist or a clairvoyant person how they look upon this hobby or obsession... would be interesting to hear!

Maybe I was a soldier in the first world war and died quickly and now simply have an urge to sort of finish listening to all that wonderful music...
It is interesting to hear what others think of my collecting but even more so what I think myself... I still wonder what it's really about! One dilemma (being an idealist) is that sometimes there's that feeling it's time spent that I possibly could've spent in a more altruistic way, but maybe life is step by step...

[Wolfe]

Once, a neighbor asked "You don't actually listen to them, do you?". I replied "Yeah sometimes".

There was thread here a while back about rude / boorish comments heard by collectors on this forum. Funny stuff.

[Victrolacollector]

Most of my family and friends could care less. My dad was into my machines, he liked them. My mom thinks its cooky. My sister would trash them, and my brother who makes duck calls, appreciates fine woodworking, makes wooden fountain pens and violins, is probably to closest to liking my machines, he is the only one I would trust with old heirlooms.

As far as friends, not really too many like them. But who cares, I am 40 years old, well educated, and been collecting since I was about 13. Like my brother and I said, our hobbies kept us focused, and out of trouble (his was model planes, mine phonographs and photography). We are thankful for that.

These young ones always tout the latest plastic gadgets, I had plenty of them, worthless garbage no value in a few years due to functional and planned obsolescence. A guy told me back in 2003 or 2004, oh why would you want that (Magnola Talking Machine), he said you should have a ipod, I explained that if I wanted one, and would have bought one (I have more respect for Tom Edison than Steve Jobs). Today, his ipod is probably worth $ 25.00 if it even works. My phonograph works great, its 96 years old, and worth more than $100.00. So there LOL.

Some have said I need to see the shrink about having 10 phonographs in my collection. I told them this new "phenomenon" of "hoarding" is just a paradigm shift of social constructs. What some people have grown accustomed today, would have been appalling 20 years ago and vice versa. If someone is happy with 10 machines go for it. Today, the focus is about produce for the masses, and control the product and use. Today's focus is having very little that is tangible. One day people will live in small 200 sqft houses and have their ipods. I prefer minimal 1,000 sqft and have my Victrola.

[edisonplayer]

My friend Jerry Donnell once told me,"You asked what's wrong with collecting "victrolas"?A big fat NOTHING!!SO THERE! edisonplayer

[oldphonographsteve]

Usually I get a sort of "wow that's really neat! What are they though?"
I once brought in my Edison Standard to school, (I am young by the way) and played it for my History class. Most of my friends thought it was really cool and went up to inspect the thing.
On the other hand my family are somewhat different. Once I was with two of my cousins and I started talking about how Victrolas operate, one of them was listening intently for a while when my other cousin said "wow, I can't believe you can handle Stevie's Victrola-talk!" Then there are my mom who says "theres not enough room in the house for another!" But most of the time people are supportive!

[Curt A]

Most of the comments I have experienced are similar to all of your previous ones. Lately, the comments have changed to "Why do you want to hoard this stuff?" - collecting is equated to hoarding. The other type is really amazing - "I bet you could get a lot of money for this stuff, you should have a yard sale..."

I have had some positive comments by testing an idea that most people have never heard any talking machine. So, I set up a phonograph with a nice horn in the driveway on a table and began to play a series of different records to see what people might say. The first person walking by said "I wondered where all this beautiful music was coming from..." Most other comments were positive, as well from the people out for walks and the children out playing. Most of the children thought that it was an interesting thing to see a Thomas Edison machine and cylinders and seemed to be interested in the technology that took them from this to iPods.

Who knows... maybe there's hope? On the other hand, it really doesn't matter, because I don't care what they think or do with this stuff when I'm gone, but I am going to enjoy it while I'm still here.