Another archival photo unearthed. This one is of me in my room in Roselle Illinois in the early 80’s. I guestimate 1982-ish. This was the room I had there until my graduation in 1983 and my move to UW Milwaukee.

There are a few highlights in this shot.

1) I was skinny.

2) You can see a better shot of the insides of the Peavey T-30 hardshell guitar case with the amp built in. There was a gain and volume and distortion knob and a headphone jack (which was certainly a deciding factor in my mother’s decision to buy it for me). The guitar is laying on the floor behind me.

3) Tape rack. At this point I am guessing these were all tapes from my friend Jeff. I don’t think dubbing had taken over my life yet, and believe it or not I can just make out the Radio Shack tape spine of a J-card there in the right hand side of the rack. Some of Jeff’s tapes were on Radio Shack tapes. If you look close you can see a Certron brand tape in the tape player. That was a cheap tape favorite of ours for making our letter tapes.

4) Neil Diamond – That is the Neil Diamond album “Serenade” I’m holding. This is a bit confusing in terms of timeline. I inherited all of my father’s Neil Diamond albums when he passed away, but this was way before that. So evidently, I purchased this album. I might have had it out when my dad was visiting.

There is another shot from the same period that shows my dad there.

This photo also shows the clock that I had that is covered in the first photo.

5)It is my Pepsi clock. It used to light up long long ago. There was a buzzing circular light bulb that made this not only a clock but a night light too. I think this may be in the basement. It made its way to Max’s room for a while.

6) Stereo Components are in both shots. My giant receiver. That is the one that mom purchased when we moved to Ann Arbor. I think it lasted for many many years. Also seen is my single tape player. No dubbing. No frills. It was replaced many times over. Last but not least was my top load record player. I had a record cleaner and apparently a pump dispenser of cleaner for the brush. It was a jumble of component brands, but it worked and it kept me in music for many years.

That room was the one I discovered Blues in, received my Record Club selections on vinyl in, and made tapes to Jeff from.

It was a good room.