What do a 200ft swinging bridge from the 1940's, a Coon Dog Cemetery with strict admission requirements, Superman, digging for diamonds, and Helen Keller have in common? They're all things we did or visited on the roadtrip we just got back from! Joe and I and four friends hopped in a borrowed minivan and headed south to see a whole lot of ridiculous sights we had discovered in our trip planning. We saw Superman Square in Metropolis, IL, conquered the swinging bridge in Tishomingo State Park in Mississippi, ate at the cafe that the Whistle Stop Cafe is based on (Did I have Fried Green Tomatoes? Yes. They were delicious), toured two civil war homes in Franklin, Tennessee, and survived the winter freak-tornadoes in Arkansas. We did more, but I won't bore you. It was awesome.
Anyway, on the trip one question was asked about five things that make us happy. One of my five things was playing a record on my record player. Joe gave it to me last Christmas, and it's one of my favorite things. He found it on Craigslist, and since then I have had it looked over and repaired by a man with 25+ years of experience restoring phonographs. He did a wonderful job, and now I get to enjoy my player without worrying about hurting it.
This record player is a Columbia Viva-Tonal Grafonola 113a, manufactured in England in 1928. It has mahogany wood on the inside, and weighs enough to throw out your back (I've heard it called a "hernia-inducing weight" on a blog somewhere).
