It’s a well known fact that I have an on-going love affair with Charles Bukowski, poet, drunk, homeless bum, reprobate, genius. We haven’t been back to visit with him lately and it’s way past time. If you search my posts you can enjoy my other thoughts about his writings and poetry. My favorite is an interview I conducted with him…posthumously. Yes, nineteen years after his death. If that seems crazy to you…then let me be insane. But, read it before you judge.
magic machine © by Charles Bukowski
I liked the old records that
scratched
as the needle slid across
grooves well
worn
you heard the voice
coming through
the speaker
as if there were a person
inside that
mahogany box
but you only listened while
your parents were
not there.
and if you didn’t wind
the victrola
it gradually slowed and
stopped.
it was best in late
afternoons
and the records spoke
of
love.
love, love, love.
some of the records had beautiful people
labels
others were orange, green
yellow, red blue.
the victrola had belonged to
my grandfather
and he had listened to those
same
records.
and now I was a boy
and
I heard them.
and nothing I could think of
in my life then
seemed better than listening
to that
victrola
when my parents weren’t
there.
As a tiny girl I remember the Victrola that my mother had. It was truly magic. The vinyls were of Benny Goodman, Glen Miller, Nat King Cole, Al Jolson and Billie Holiday. My mother taught me to dance; the ‘swing’ (only she called it the jitterbug) to the sounds of those big bands.
When I was a young woman, the turn table, stereo system, radio and TV (black and white) were all contained in a beautiful piece of wooden furniture in the living room. 
One day my young husband and I went shopping for a ‘cassette player’. Our eight track player had broken. As the salesman showed us our choices, he leaned in and quietly told us, “if you wait a few months, there’s a new thing coming out called a CD player.” “What’s a CD?” we asked. “It’s a disk-thing, about four inches across and holds a complete album.” He jittered with excitement that this wondrous invention called a CD would be the next BIG thing. As we stood there (circa 1980’s), the three of us, little did we know where all this was going……..
(title: You Get so Alone at Times, That it Just Makes Sense * C.Bukowski)
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The fact you loved Charles Bukowski is one reason I sign up. Plus I like your writing. You seem to be in my age group. I am 69, a boomer.
I edited an anthology, my first stab at being an author this past year. KID ME NOT, an anthology by child-free women of the ’60 who are know in their 60s.
I have been invited to speak at the first NON MOM conference coming up in the fall. They did a documentary on me last year, LOVE IN THE SIXTIES.
I live in Austin, Tx.
Thank you, Aralyn, for your comment. Yes, we have much in common.