Remembering Salt Of The Earth and Whizz Records

Although it's extremely convenient to buy music online today, I still miss the atmosphere of record stores.  The atmosphere of music fans selling music to other music fans and finding unexpected treasures can't be replicated online.  While going to college in Columbia, Missouri, I was a regular customer of Salt Of The Earth and Whizz Records, before it moved.  I always liked being one of only a few customers browsing through the stacks at both stores and running across rock and jazz finds I hadn't expected to snag. Once, after playing Grin's "White Lies" on KCOU, I went to Salt Of The Earth and found the Grin LP I'd been seeking.  The owner of the store, Eddie, remarked, "Cool...Someone who knows Nils Lofgren's music."  After tracking my purchase in a notebook, Eddie tallied my total on a calculator, while announcing the sales tax, "And 73 cents for the governor," as usual.  Another day, a Whizz Records clerk said that when he was in college, he would eat only a can of soup some days so he'd have more money for records.  No one can ever have or appreciate too much music, so I think both of those music fans had their priorities in the right order.