The Road To Vinyl

Hello,
The rules for blogs in the Vinyl Engine permit almost any theme, but it's good to keep it pertinent to the analog territory.
Some backgroung on my Road To Vinyl: as a boy of age 4 I went into my grandparent's garage, where the car eventually did not fit because of all the unused things now stored there. I had a feast examining a wind-up 78 player, with the needles and megaphone. Couple of years later, we spent cool seasons at our country house, to escape the hot summers downtown.
On family walks at night we sometimes visited my uncle's country house, and listened to a new-fangled thing he purchased: a "hi-fi" made up of an assortment of "components" and one huge corner speaker. This had several internal speakers, including a "tweeter"! There was also a massive tonearm finished in gray textured paint...quite possibly made by Gray (?). My uncle was playing the new-fangled LP. The word "monophonic" had not yet been invented.
This was a development beyond my father's console to play 78s, including The Nutcracker Suite, and Selections from Carmen.
During the late teens, I got myself a student job at the university's Music Library, which had six Empire turntables with the new 880p cartridges, McIntosh tuners and amplifiers, and lots of headphones for the students.
The students made requests for us to play whatever recordings were on the list. We made a schedule and posted it daily, so the students could listen to the recordings played according to schedule. Chicago's WFMT was one of the only two FM stations continuously tuned.
From the income received, I purchased my AR XA turntable, Dynaco SCA-35 integrated amplifier kit, Empire 880p cartridge, and one set of headphones of a forgotten brand (complete with its junction box for connecting to the amplifier).
Years later, after I committed marriage, my audiophile uncle gave me his Thorens TD-124 with SME 3012 and three Ortofon SPU's. He was graduating to a TD-125.
During those years, I did a lot of speaker building (for myself and friends) to include one pair of DIY LS3/5A, which I still use, and one pair of the Webb TLS, my magnum opus, with kit of parts from Falcon Acoustics, closed down during 2007. Sigh. It was a four-way transmission line which had also been commercially marketed by Radford in England (model R50, I believe). Sold it later to raise cash...
That, plus one divorce and one retirement from my previous profession, took me to the current status. It's been rather good and fascinating. Now the woodworking equipment is totally rusted and occupying some place in the trash dumps (from years of humid storage and neglect after the divorce).
That's one Road to Vinyl. Glad to be here.
bauzace50