Happy Monday and welcome back! With Thanksgiving coming up this week, one thing that my family makes a point to do is to have music playing while we are in preparation for our guests. My family is always playing classic bands or artists like Journey, Boston, Bon Jovi, Queen, Lynyrd Skynyrd and many more.

It may be true that we play some of these bands from our computer, but there is nothing like putting a CD in a stereo and hitting play. Thankfully, my family  happens to have some of their albums laying around the house so they aren’t far from reach when we want to play them. However, not everyone has those albums laying around, but lucky for you, thrift stores always tend to have extremely neat selections.

The best place to look for vinyl records would be an antique mall. One antique mall that I really enjoy for this purpose would be Nellie & Nico’s Antique Mall off of Shawnee Mission Parkway and Quivira Road. The organization of this mall is really unique; there are many sections to travel to including furniture, clothing and appliances, but my favorite part of this antique mall is the music section.

There is a huge area of the mall where there are so many different kinds of music available. Vinyl records, cassette tapes, CDs, everything that any music junkie could imagine. Every time I go to this antique mall, I am always excited to see the new selections they have.

However, my go-to place for CDs would have to be, of course, Savers. I realize that I talk about Savers more than I talk about anything else on this blog, but it truly has everything anyone could ever need in a thrift store.

The CD selection, though small, has a large variety of genres and bands to choose from. You can find anything from classical music all the way to heavy metal or screamo music. My most favorite album that I purchased from Savers would have to be Jet’s, “Get Born.” This album is full of ridiculous talent and songs from the heart; they all tell such a neat story and I truly have an appreciation for their music.

Overall, the coolest part about thrifting vinyl records, cassette tapes or CDs is that you never know who held that in their hands before you did. When you listen to the songs that you bought, you can’t help but wonder why they bought the album, what song they listened to the most and what they look like.

The main thing I always wonder is how each soul affected the person who listened to it. Music affects everyone in different ways, and to be able to listen to a song on a CD that was previously owned by someone who was truly touched by the music is incredible. There is so much power in music; every time you go to pop in that CD you bought from Savers, “just because,” you will be able to feel that same power.

So I would recommend that you go out to Savers this holiday weekend, or any thrift store for that matter, and buy a CD or two. Pop that feller in and listen to it in the car, in your house or wherever suits you best. What’ve you got to lose?

Stay thrifty,

Claire Boone