An Unsung Heroine of our Musical Life: Marion, Queen of
the Record Bar
My favorite local record shop, the biggest one in my town, was Lofquist’s
Record Bar. It was an independent, not a chain store. You’d go downstairs into
the basement of the TV and Appliance store where the manager Marion helped
people buy their records for over 20 years. There were several tiny listening
booths with windows where you would close the door and sample play the album
(vinyl LP 33 1/3 RPMs—revolutions per minute), or maybe a 45 RPM, that you were
considering purchasing.
The
last record I remember playing in this way was “After Bathing at Baxter’s” by
the Jefferson Airplane. The very proper Marion, who’d known me for years and had
played Gerry and the Pacemakers records for us, seemed troubled by the change. I
was choosing this San Francisco album of psychedelic rock, not Bobby Vee, Neil
Sedaka, or The Sound of Music soundtrack.
“Marion Nicoll, 98 years old, proved to be a fountain of information,
observations and opinions, only partly formed by her daily reading of the Globe
& Mail. She has a lifetime of memories filed away and one of her fondest is
of Lofquist's Record Bar in downtown Oakville. … From 1952 until 1974, she
managed the music department at Lofquist's Television, Radio and Appliances
store. Her customers came in all sizes, ages and levels of notoriety from a bona
fide Princess, to a writer of hymns, plus a pair of world champion skaters.
“But
it is the teenagers from the local high school who were her near constant
companions. They came to Lofquist's on a regular basis, … to peruse the CHUM Top
50 Chart posted in the front window and to sample the music in the tiny
listening booths.
“According to OTHS alumnus, Sandra Haig, now Deeks, "up to three kids
could crowd into a booth" if they were careful. Deeks, a nurse and Burlington
resident, is still a big fan of Nicoll, whom she visits at the Oakville Seniors'
Residence in Bronte. "She never got upset with us or bothered about things,"
Deeks said.
“For
her part Nicoll, who never married, always enjoyed the young people; the ones
who worked in the store part-time and the ones who bought the records. ‘It seems
to me they were all exceptional,’ she recalled, and to hear her talk you would
think they were all brilliant, honest and perfectly behaved. Well, she said,
maybe it was a more innocent time. It was a good time to be in the record
business.
“Of
course, the classics never went out of style, she added. Chopin has always been
her personal favourite.” (2007)
