re: 45's or 33 1/3's...what was your first?

For me it was definitely 45's. I don't remember the very first one I owned. I do remember when I was about 6 or 7 being at my uncle's house and his kids, who were older than me, had a collection of Beatles records. They had all of their early hits like I Wanna Hold Your Hand, Twist and Shout, etc. They'd load up a big stack of them on the record player and we'd listen for what seemed like hours but was really probably 20 minutes.

When I got a little bit older I got a record player of my own. I remember I'm Your Captain by Grand Funk, Bridge Over Troubled Water, Let It Be and Hey Jude.

Eventually I got an 8-track that served me pretty well until college when I got an actual stereo.