We always aim to
introduce something different to amuse and interest our members at the memory
cafe, and this month we were delighted to welcome John Sleep from West Pentire.
John is affectionately known as ‘The Gramophone Man’ and he restores, repairs,
buys and sell vintage gramophones and phonographs - his workshop is an
Aladdin’s Cave!
John brought
along several fascinating machines to show us and gave a brief history of these
forerunners of our modern turntables, CD players, i-pads and other ‘hi-tech’
means of listening to music. Although these machines pre-dated even our oldest
members, the classic HMV (His Master’s
Voice) logo of the dog listening intently to an early gramophone was familiar
to us all, and it was wonderful to hear the scratchy sound of an old cylinder
and 78rpm records played on original machines - it brought the memories flooding back.
Amongst his vast
collection of memorabilia, John showed us early shellac records, named record
sleeves from many retailers in Cornish towns, postcards depicting phonographs
and numerous needle tins.
We were spellbound by John’s knowledge and
easy communication skills, although we were not sure what he thought of our
afternoon tea being served on cake stands made of old (but well-scrubbed)
records!
Puzzles and games
were suitably themed to link with our overall topic of the afternoon and
included a quiz based on songs from the days of the Old Time Music Halls which
set us all thinking and, inevitably singing.
As usual, the
afternoon passed very quickly with much chatter, reminiscences of our past and
plenty of laughter. We were reminded that there would be a further opportunity
to meet up again twice monthly, with our July sessions being held on Monday 6th
July and Monday 20th July from 2pm – 4pm at Crantock Village Hall.
