Wednesday is National Juke Box Day. That is one celebration I can appreciate. I've always had a fascination with juke boxes. How can you not be a fan?

I remember when you could hear a song for a dime. When I was kid, when we were someplace that had a juke box, I sometimes would be successful in conning a dollar's worth of change from my dad if I promised to stop driving him crazy. I loved watching a juke box change a record, and loved it when the selections I made, played. If it was a busy venue, it would sometimes be a while before my selections would play. That was annoying.

The juke box came about in the late 1800s and became a popular item, especially for venues who could not afford a band. Rock-Ola, Seeburg and Wurlitzer were some of the most popular companies manufacturing juke boxes.

It's funny that even though I had a record player and plenty of records at home, paying for a song or more to be played on a juke box, seemed so much cooler. Maybe it was because I was sharing my favorite songs with other people. Wow, maybe that's were I got my passion for becoming a disc jockey. Except instead of me paying a juke box to play records, I became the one getting paid to play records on the radio.

Speaking of radio, it was probably a big factor on the decline of the popularity of juke boxes. Why pay to hear a song when you could hear a lot of songs for free on the radio? Still, the fascination for juke boxes will never fade away for me. I've always wanted to own one, but they are expensive.

I checked prices of juke boxes for sale online, and they ranged from hundreds to thousands of dollars. Oh well, maybe I'll buy one when I get rich. Just don't for sure know when that day will come.

via National Day Calendar

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