Betty Ann Barr Boilesen Memories of the Phonograph   My name is Betty Barr Boilesen. I was born in Elba, Nebraska in 1924 on a 650 acre ranch by a river and lots of cottonwood trees. My second grade teacher, Miss Hildred Karre, gave me my first experience with music on a phonograph which was a portable suit-case style. You opened the lid and inside was this wonderful little record player. Our opening exercise was a special time. We listened and also played games to the music such as the Farmer in the Dell and Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush. My favorite part, however, was watching Miss Karre wind the crank. She wore silver bracelets which cling-clanged when she turned the crank. My niece Marjorie Ann was in kindergarden in the same school room along with my cousin Eudean. After school the three of us would play school and I would be the teacher. Of course to play school you must have a phonograph. So I would put my dad's razor blade sharpener on top of a shoebox as a makeshift phonograph with crank, and with the rubber jar rings and gold Mason jar lids on my wrist I was ready to wind the 'crank' and jingle-jangle and we would sing and dance to our school room songs.   Kriss Kross Stropper Razor Blade Sharpener, c.1927.   None of our neighbors except one family had a phonograph. Theirs had an elegant floor model. If we visited them during an evening we would go to the parlor and listen to a few records. When I was around ten we stayed by the river in a cabin rented by my Aunt Della for an overnight adventure. During the day some older girls came to the river bank and brought their phonograph. We watched from the distance, listened to their records and thought those older girls were so sophisticated and certainly to be envied. My step-sister Fay's sister-in-law's family, the Kellers, had a phonograph and it was a treat to go over and listen to their records on their phonograph that sat in the corner of their parlor. When my niece and favorite playmate died at age eight the funeral was held at the Keller's home and I have a vivid memory of Marjorie Ann's casket put in that parlor corner as they had to move the phonograph out of the room. We never had a phonograph in our house. Nevertheless, I do have wonderful phonograph memories!   Listen to The Farmer in the Dell, Victory Record No. 36 circa 1930 Courtesy of The Woolworths Museum.   The Farmer in the Dell Record was included in the Third Bubble Book - The Harper-Columbia Book that Sings - Records by Columbia Graphophone Co., 1918.   "Here we go Round the Mulberry Bush" - Illustration from A Book of Nursery Rhymes by Clara E. Atwood, 1901.   Little Tots' Nursery Tunes Record Albums came with 78 rpm records and picture cards, circa 1924