Does this record player picture work for you as a writing prompt? It’s another of the photographs I took at that hotel I told you about last week. The one with the imaginative quirky decor.
The ground floor area has a lounge and bar, and absolutely loads of interesting stuff dotted around. I say stuff because “objets d’art” seems too, well, stuffy. Memorabilia? Well, some of it is, but it’s not that the place is a tribute to any particular era. It’s more random than that. It’s more akin to the mix of ornaments and furniture and collectables that you’d assemble in your own living room. Unless, of course, you’ve adopted the minimalist “does it bring you joy” lifestyle of Marie Kondo.
This record player caught my attention, though. I’ll bet you had one just like it. I know we did in my family, only ours wasn’t on legs. A pink and grey Dansette, it was – if childhood memory can be trusted – and it sat on a table.
My dad was a Frank Sinatra fan, so I remember that was one of the LPs we played. Fats Domino. The soundtrack to South Pacific. I’m not sure whose that was, Mum or Dad! Dad was an outstanding accordionist – not Scottish ceilidh stuff, but continental style – and we had lots of LPs of that.
And then there were The Beatles singles. We’d stack them on the automatic spindle thing in the middle of the turntable and they’d drop down in turn to play. I’m sure it had a name but it escapes me. Cliff Richard. The Searchers. I wish I could remember what else we had….
Does this work for you as a Story Starter? Growing up in the Fifties or Sixties. Buying first records, going to first dances, first boy-band crush, first record player or transistor radio, or how Mum and Dad were once young, too…
Shirley Blair Fiction Ed Shirley’s been with the “Friend” since 2007 and calls it her dream job because she gets to read fiction all day every day. Hobbies? Well, that would be reading! She also enjoys writing fiction when she has time, long walks, travel, and watching Scandi thrillers on TV.
