A Eugene couple recently unearthed a treasure deep in their crawl space. It wasn鈥檛 jewels or gold bars鈥攂ut a trove of iconic magazines they鈥檇 nearly forgotten they saved.
In 1971, Gayle Giobbi went off to college. Her parents gave her a parting gift: a coveted subscription to Rolling Stone magazine.
Over the years, the monthly publications kept coming. Gayle married her sweetheart Mike Chisolm, they bought a house in Eugene and pondered what to do with their ever-growing magazine collection.
鈥淲e should keep all of them in there!,鈥� Gayle exclaimed. 鈥淲hen we were young and healthy and could carry big heavy boxes into a crawl space. So we did that. And now we just retired and we鈥檙e like, 鈥榦ur kids are gonna think we鈥檙e nuts鈥攖hey鈥檙e gonna have to find these in our crawl space.鈥�
So they spent an entire day exhuming.
鈥淗ere鈥檚 the technique,鈥� Gayle says from the crawl space. 鈥淚 put on knee pads, a headlamp, then I wheeled this (little dolly) way into the corner. Then I put a giant box on there. And then I would put this rope around it. Then I would throw the rope to Mike- And he would pull pull pull pull pull.鈥�
Mike chimes in, 鈥淗ow many boxes, Gayle?鈥�
鈥�15 boxes,鈥� she says.
鈥淎nd now here they are- four decades worth of perfectly preserved Rolling Stones- neatly stacked on a big sheet of plastic covering their living room floor. Faces from the covers peer up at us.鈥�
(hear sound of plastic crunching)
鈥淵ou know they really had their finger on the pulse of things,鈥� Gayle says. 鈥淭here are very few covers of artists that fizzled into nothing.鈥�
Shuffling through the stacks, there鈥檚 Bob Dylan, here鈥檚 Bruce Springstein, yep, Madonna made the cover.
鈥淚t鈥檚 so wild they go from Quintin Tarentino to USHER to Prince鈥�
Ooh Super Summer Double Issue,鈥� Gayle croons.
Reporter: 鈥淭he Cars- remember them?鈥�
鈥淚 remember The Cars,鈥� Gayle laughs.
鈥淭he magazines themselves have changed. In the beginning, they鈥檙e still news print,鈥� says Mike. 鈥淎nd they went glossy in somewhere around 鈥�91. They got smaller in what was this, 2009?鈥�
Reporter: 鈥淕ayle, you said it was fun to flash back.鈥�
鈥淵eah, when I look at the pictures of all my favorite bands and artists when they were young, I feel like I鈥檓 that age again. Like here鈥檚 a picture of Jerry when he was like in his 30鈥檚 鈥搇ike 鈥榶eah, I鈥檓 in my 30鈥檚 I鈥檓
remembering all that.鈥�
鈥淵eah, it鈥檚 a lot of history,鈥� says Gayle. 鈥溊戏蜃哟� is a huge part of our lives. Going to concerts was our main form of entertainment, we love it. That鈥檚 what this represents. The sound track of our lives, in visual form.鈥�
鈥淲e knew then why we kept them,鈥� says Mike. 鈥淭his is music, this is politics, this is us! The question now is really what are we gonna do with them?鈥�
Their friends are full of suggestions: Sell them on EBay? Wallpaper the guest bathroom?
For right now, Gayle and Mike are content digging on the articles and reveling in 40 years of treasured memories- courtesy of the Rolling Stone.
Reporter鈥檚 note: Gayle Giobbi Chisholm retired from KLCC last year.
Copyright 2020