WHEN STEREO CAME TO BE!!

          When I graduated from eighth grade in 1958 one of my gifts was a new hi-fi. It held a 78, 33, and a 45 record. Remember those little or big vinyl disks. The one most often bought was the 45 with the big hole. The 78 was a breakable material and thicker. Generally, you bought the 45 for around 99 cents for a single with another song on the flip side. Rarely did you buy an album until an artist put together a a few songs or several of their hits. 

          One of my junior high romances was Denise Walker who lived in Gilman, Iowa just 7 miles east of Laurel. Her folks ran a Super Value Store in town and lived on the east edge of Gilman. During his 1958 period, Denise's folks bought a new Sterophonic set-up and had it put up in their living room. 

        The coolest thing was that the speaker's were set up on either side of their fireplace in the living room. Of course, the big difference between mono sound and stereo was that stereo the sound was "split" and you could hear different sounds from the speakers and sound could cross from one speaker to the other.

       What was really cool was that they had a demo or novelty record that came with the Stereo. It was incredible listening to a bowling ball start down a lane on one side of the fireplace then  roll on across and hit the pins on the other side of the room. Wow! Or, the sound of an airplane taking off and flying across the room and the same with a car. The sound of music, movies, and TV would be changed forever.