Redartz: Hello, music lovers! Have you ever looked over the Billboard Magazine Hot 100 Singles chart? Once upon a time, the "singles" referred to in that chart were 45 rpm singles. Yes, we're talking vinyl. But not LP's, or even EP's . No, these were the 7 inch discs that had the big hole in the middle. You remember; you usually had to pop an adapter into the middle in order to play the 45 on most turntables.
My parents never had 45s around; the first time I ever saw them was when our babysitter brought some over in a small carrying case. Not long after, they started showing up at school: during recess, our 3rd.Grade teacher would let us bring in records to play on the little phonograph. Mostly it was the girls who brought the records; seems like there were Monkees songs, Partridge Family, and other 'bubble gum' hits.
Once I was introduced to the Top 40 and all the fun of 70's pop, I started gravitating to the racks of singles when shopping with my folks. We had a Woolworth's in town, and they had a huge rack of 45s. The display was arranged numerically, with the current number 1 all the way down to number 40. Of course, they had a chart posted so you could find the disc you were looking for. They were generally about a dollar; much less than the 6 dollars LPs were priced at. Most of my friends at the time were buying LPs, and I did occasionally (it wasn't until high school that I really caught the album bug). But more often I just added to my growing stack of 45s, in one of those little suitcase-styled carriers. 
The first 45 I ever bought was "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia" by Vicki Lawrence. Many more followed over the next decade and a half. Even in college, there would be songs I liked, but not sufficiently to justify purchasing the whole LP. So I added more 45s well into the 80s. Among those were included some interesting imports, colored vinyl, and many picture sleeves. By the time CDs became popular, I had a couple hundred singles.
Incidentally, for those of you who also had a stack of 45s, a question: did you find the quality of the vinyl deteriorated by the mid 80s? It got to the point where a single would start hissing and popping after only a few plays (and no, it wasn't a bad stylus: I was obsessive about replacing the diamond needle in that belt drive Akai turntable). Of course, the new CDs by then were replacing my vinyl purchases, much like most other people. The last 45 I ever bought was "Paranoimia" by Art of Noise with Max Headroom. And yes, it was a picture sleeve.
All those 45s remained on a shelf for years, collecting dust. Then a few years ago my wife bought me a USB turntable, allowing me to transfer all my old vinyl onto the computer. It took awhile, most of the 45s (and LPs) got converted to mp3. Some of them were too scratched to work with, but it was a pleasant memory trip going through the stack and recalling all those favorite songs. The ironic coda to the story: about a month after I unloaded all my vinyl, my nephew called. Seems he had just started a new hobby: he is now collecting vinyl records! I sadly told him he was a few weeks too late. At least I had a small stack of LPs remaining, which I gave him, so he wasn't totally out of luck...
Nowadays you still see 45s for sale cheap at yard sales and flea markets. Currently vinyl LPs have had a resurgence of popularity, but the same doesn't seem to be true for the singles. But that's okay, they will always hold a small spot in my memory (and a large space on my hard drive).
Now, if you'll pardon me, I'm going to go put on some earbuds and play some old stuff. Any thoughts about your 'stax of wax'?
