Dear Folks, This evening I realized that over a number of years of my life I spent a lot of time listening to records just by myself. When I was a teenager in the 1940s I all but wore out the records that I had of "Moonlight Serenade," "Stardust," "I'll Be Seeing You" and all of the other WWII songs. When it came to the 1950s even though I didn't have the records to play, I still listened to the radio and remember vividly such songs such as "How Much is That Doggy in the Window?" "I'm Walking Beside You," "You're Cheating Heart" and "Hey There, You With the Stars in Your Eyes." But when it came to the mid 1950s and I was 3,000 miles from home and in the Navy, my taste in music changed to a degree. I had already been exposed to classical music and I couldn't hear enough of it by that time. I had already heard Tchaikovsky's"1812 Overture" on brand-new high fidelity and from there I was hooked. I bought up every record of Tchaikovsky's that I could find and then somehow I was introduced to Beethoven. I swear I bought up everyone of his symphonies and over a period of time I could name everyone of them just by the music. And that's what brought up the subject in my mind this evening. I was listening to my classical radio station while I was cleaning up my dishes and things in my kitchen and when I heard what was playing I immediately recognized it as Beethoven's 6th Symphony also known as his Pastoral Symphony. At first I was pleased to at least recognize precisely which symphony it was but as it continued on and on I started to get bored with it. Over the 40 years that have passed since I first heard it, I've gotten jaded with the familiar passages and the soft pastoral landscape Beethoven was painting at the time. In other words I knew where he was going with it as well as I eventually knew where Tshaikovsky was going with his "1812 Overture." Included in that same category is the entire opera of Carmen. There's something to say about not listening to the same recordings over and over again over the years. Somewhere along the line you'll lose sight of the magic they gave you the first time you heard them. I know you won't take my advice but don't hold on to CD recordings as if that's the last time you'll have the opportunity to enjoy a particular song or symphony. Enjoy it at the time, let go of it and hopefully the next time you hear the music it will bring back the original memories or magic you remembered in the first place. vee