*Vinyl Cafe

Most of my spare time is spent with my kids and so some things I used to do have gone by the wayside for a long time. While sick and in the stage of having no energy for anything, just well enough to be bored, I had time if nothing else. The kids were out in the park around noon on a Sunday and I turned on the radio. There was The Vinyl Cafe, as charming, engaging, and moving as I had remembered it. The music was fun, of course, not the top 40, something new, something old, always interesting. But the best part was the short story, written and read by Stuart McLean.

The story, as usual was about Dave and Morlee and their children. There were no vampires. It didn’t thrill. But it made me smile with the truth and familiarity of it and brought a few tears to my eyes as love shone through the embarrassments and clumsiness of good intentions gone awry and brought right again.

I own the first collection of Vinyl Cafe stories. But they’re best heard read aloud. The stories can be downloaded on podcast or heard on CBC: the link is here.. When you’re tired, when you’re low, when you’re well enough to be bored but not well enough to do anything, while you’re eating breakfast or lunch or dinner, before bed so you don’t have bad dreams, these are stories well worth listening to.