One of Those Small Shining Moments

I brought those garage sale records with me to school this morning. There are kindred spirits there who appreciate that sort of thing. I carried them over to the redwood picnic table where folks were standing around during recess.

"Hang on a minute," said Marc, and he hurried off to his classroom. He came back shlepping an old-fashioned Victrola phonograph, the  kind with a wind-up crank arm and an internal amplifying horn built into a heavy wooden case. 

Now honestly, what are the odds?

He lifts a record from its envelope, sets it on the turntable, winds up the lever, and gently places the needle in a groove.

Suddenly Marian Anderson is singing “Deep River” as we gather in the sunshine by a picnic table seventy years after the recording was made. The scratches and pops somehow add to the magic.

We’re all a bit late for class.