An audio recording of an oral history of Floyd Parsons, his wife Becky Parsons, and their daughter Becky Parsons. Floyd was born in Kentucky, and Sally and Floyd met in Ohio as young teenagers on the farm about 73 years before the time of the recording. Floyd got involved with music at six years old when he taught himself to play the guitar. He could never read sheet music, but played by ear. Becky can read music, but Sally doesn’t play music at all. They moved to Hillsboro, Oregon in 1962, and then one town over in Forest Grove in 1963. In 1964, they bought a music store in Hillsboro after Floyd had been a manager there for a year. They sold all kinds of instruments, sheet music, and music supplies, as well as records and record players. It was just a family business and they never had any outside employees. Their store was the central place for the locals to get their records for a time. They stopped selling records after an eighty-eight cent store moved into town and started selling popular records. Floyd had a band for a while and they played in prisons and at small venues. At the store, Floyd also gave music lessons to students. They talked about the local businesses in Hillsboro and Forest Grove, particularly old record shops including “What’s Up Music?” and “Forest Groove”. The local businesses worked together well and even held social nights for the community, including a pajama night. They looked at pictures of the family and Floyd even plays the guitar a bit at about 37 minutes into the recording.
