Play it again, Sam

The word "iconic" has become over used, and often ineptly used, but it is a descriptive most fitting for Sam the Record Man.

Sam and Sid Sniderman opened their first record store in 1937. They began in Toronto, and ultimately had 140 stores across Canada. Over more than sixty years in business, they moved from 78 rpm recordings ("platters" in old deejay talk) to LPs (33 1/3 rpm) and 45s and cassette tapes to compact discs.

We remember many hours spent in Sam's three-level store on Vancouver's Seymour Street, pawing through shelves of CDs, trolling in trays of bargain tapes. It was always a treasure hunt, with always some prizes waiting to be found.

Sam's shellac and acetate and vinyl empire began to come apart in 2000, when record stores and book shops and art house cinemas joined men's hat shops and corner candy stores in the dust of history. (No fine writing, please.)

So we bid adieu to Sam Sniderman, who departed this world this week at age 92. A good life, well lived, and our regret is largely for those who will never find themselves happily lost amid the wonders of a shop bearing the name of Sam the Record Man.