45s, 78s, and LPs

I had to interrupt my lesson in class today and throw in a quick music history lesson.  The story we were reading made reference to not only a record player, but also to a lever that controlled the speed of the record.  I was sure that most of the kids read that part of the story without even a thought, they probably didn't even think about what all that meant so I felt I should clarify the image a bit. What followed was a brief lesson on LPs, 45s and 78s.

45s, LPs, 78s...they were common identifiers in my childhood and yet they mean nothing to my students today.  I remember playing 45s at lunch in grade school.  (Yeah, that's what we called it back then.)  There was no cafeteria at St. Joe's, so the teacher stayed in the classroom during lunch and we all ate together.  My 4th grade teacher was young and hip so she let us bring in our 45s to play while we ate. One girl, MJ, was even cooler and hipper.  She would bring in her collection of Cher records and we would sing along to Dark Lady and Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves.  Of course, it was a Catholic school so we also listened to Sister Janet Mead's rock rendition of The Lord's Prayer.