Aunt Gladys

I was lucky enough to spend the afternoon with my Aunt Gladys on Oct 27 before a show at Ciceros in St. Louis. Aunt Gladys is 91, takes care of herself, is as mentally sharp as anyone I've ever met...and she has a life behind her that I'm so intrigued by I just had to tell you...
She and her husband bought a little card shop in St. Louis on Feb 15th, 1940 (it was a Friday, she said). On Feb 18th her husband found out he was leaving to work on the construction of the Pentagon building so Gladys had a new business to run alone. They had paid $600 for the business and merchandise. Two years passed before David came back, Gladys paid the business off and had amassed $2,000 in the bank. They never looked back.
In 1960 after much delay and debate the two added records to their store because Gladys loved music and REALLY loved those little vinyl discs. Their legacy began. They owned three record stores during their career, sold two off in the late 70's and just ran their home store until retirement. When they sold the last store the new owner declined the purchase of all those 'old' records so Gladys packed them up and took them to their house where they got reorganized in her basement. A short time looking at them led Gladys to form 'Encore Records'. She started selling vinyl through national magazine ads, the paper and word of mouth among collectors. As local record stores folded and national chains gave up the vinyl industry Gladys bought them out. All of them. Dillards, Penneys, the mom and pops...if they wanted rid of their records Gladys was their gal.
She can't read the labels anymore and has a hard time filling orders taken online but when she needs help her daughters sort Michael Jackson red-vinyl or whatever the call is for and she gets the job done.
Aunt Gladys spent the day with me...the kid in the candy store...sifting through amazingly cool discs and photos from her past. I sang her a couple of songs as loud as I could sing them to accommodate her hearing loss, we drank a beer together, laughed a lot and had a fantastic time. She showed me some old St. Louis papers she and her husband had saved. Even a few from when she was a child. I got to read the story that was written about Charles Lindbergh's flight across the Atlantic, the Cardinals 1936 World Series victory, D-day...it was incredible.
Our afternoon ended with Gladys giving me the Tom Waits 45 single of 'Somewhere' from Westside Story, a rare Asylum Records release that I'd been eyeing and a promise to bring my daughters back next week. She said I had better not let her find out I was paying for a room in St. Louis as she had plenty of room and asked me a third time if I needed anything to eat before my show. She noted a couple of times that she was so happy to know that a Fox could actually sing. She said there hadn't been another in her lifetime and she could only play those record players and dream of it. We had another good laugh.
I'm so happy to have gotten to know Aunt Gladys a little better, since I've learned to appreciate the elders of my Fox heritage and look forward to our next visit. I'll tell you all about it. Enjoy your people while you can.

lotsa love
jf