Before “the ‘Rona” most of my Saturday mornings were spent in a leotard and tights teaching ballet, tap, and jazz at Mary Lois School of Dance. 10 out of 12 months of the year, every Saturday morning involved, tights and an early rise to get to the studio. That’s 40 out of 52 Saturdays for the past 17 years of my life. I treated the remaining 12 free Saturdays as personal, sacred holidays. But because of the pandemic, I gave up my Saturday classes and made Saturday a permanent, personal holy day.

This particular Saturday started out with a mad dash to Josey Records in honor of 2021 Record Store Day. The first Record Store Day was in 2007 and was created by independent record store owners and employees as a way to celebrate their unique culture. Each year special vinyl and CD releases and various promotional products are made exclusively for the day and this year the estate of Prince released “The Truth.” (https://recordstoreday.com/SpecialRelease/13290 ) This CD was originally released as an accompaniment to the 1998 triple album Crystal Ball, which I hustled to Best Buy on the day of the release to get the plastic bubble edition, but then I lost this particular CD in college. It happens to be one of my favorite albums of his. After he died, I didn’t listen to his music for an entire year, and this was the first album I played straight through. They only released 13,000 copies worldwide and Josey happens to have about 30 left when I got my number 266 at 8:30 am.

After some mental math and a quick run to Starbucks to fuel my brain, my group number was finally called to go through the RSD racks. Two hours later, I scored the 21st copy of the Truth and picked up a few other special release purple vinyl while l was there.

The best part about Record Store Day….the Prince Fam. We are alive and well out here. We exchanged numbers, looked at pictures, and kept count for each other. We continue to be shining examples of humanity and community.

How early would you wake up and stand in line for “the Truth?”