SHOTS FROM ALL SIDES: The art of sensible souveniring

Many decades ago when I was traveling in interesting places I would sometimes spend time in record stores.

What a waste.

When I could have been at odd museums, wonderful art galleries, interesting bars or simply seeing beguiling sights (and sites), I would be flicking through boxes thinking, “got it, got it, don't want it, hmmm but it's expensive, got it, wow but it's not essential, got it, don't care, got it . . .”

What an absolute waste of time.

That said, I do have some cherished albums from such exploring: a couple of classic Acid Jazz compilations from London when the genre was just defining itself; a copy of A Hard Days Night by Los Beatles from a market in San Telmo, Buenos Aires; a big box set of Bright Eyes' earliest recording (electronic stuff) bought in Seattle, and a chunk of Frank Zappa "beat the boots" series from somewhere in LA.

My most cherished however were two rare Ornette Coleman albums picked up in New York street stall in Downtown just after I'd interviewed him in the Meat Packing District.

Oh and yes, even as recently as last year I did go to a great little record store in Stockholm and bought a couple of peculiar Beatles' singles and a vinyl box set of unreleased Rolling Stones tracks.

But really, I gave away the whole crate-digging thing in favour of actually seeing the people and places I was in.

I still have the habit of keeping newspaper clippings and buying books or booklets about certain places, but – like records – they can be exceptionally heavy and cost a fortune in excess baggage.

And the internet allows us to find the same information on our phones so . . .

One habit I never gave up however was collecting light and portable souvenir shot glasses.

They are small, usually sturdy and functional.

We keep a small selection on hand but the other day while clearing up after the flood we came upon a box of them which had been put away for safe-keeping.

Washed and wiped they were there as tiny reminders of places as diverse as a roadhouse in the Australian Outback, Cape Kennedy, Positano, Sun Studio . . .

Just a tip when traveling. Shot glasses from an interesting place, bought in minutes, make much more sense than an album which took an hour to find while the world went by outside the store.

Cheers.

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These entries are of little consequence to anyone other than me Graham Reid, the author of this site, and maybe my family, researchers and those with too much time on their hands.

Enjoy these random oddities at Personal Elsewhere.