They call this portable?

Posted by noelbynature under Lifestyle, Personal, Reflections
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A couple of weeks ago I featured a post by Andy about his visit to David Row and his collection of gramophones and I wrote about how enduring the phonograph was compared to our current staple of audio devices. Today, I’m featuring James’ post on his portable gramophone - ipod nano it is not!

Obviously, the model is portable because it’s contained in a box for easy storage and carrying around, but you certainly can’t stuff it into your backpack or your pocket. James writes:

In the 1960s when I grew up in Bukit Ho Swee, the photo above was the portable version of the “Grandfather” gramophone. The box was in black, not blue as shown above. This “new toy” in the neighbourhood was given an used set in working condition to me by my elder brother.

I spent hours to experiment with the portable gramophone almost every day after returning home from school. It was a novelty which my childhood buddies had never seen it before. The gramophone actually played on the Chinese song records, with five or six records which came along with the player.

Strange. I did not have to operate the player with written instruction manual. I did then to use by trial and error. There were a few moving mechanical parts after my elder brother taught me to make the gramophone run. No batteries or electricity to be powered. I just had to wind it up and let it go…and listen to the songs to enjoy.

Sadly, James’ portable gramophone met its end during one of Singapore’s early disasters. To find out which one, read on at Memories of Grandfather Gramophones.

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