A Happy Unexpected Adventure

The clock inside Brooks Novelty Antiques & Records

I was at the California Railroad Museum in what is known as Old Sacramento and started to walk around all of the touristy part of Old Sacramento with its candy shops, souvenir places, restaurants, etc. When I saw this sign. I like everything the sign said and went downstairs and saw one of the best-kept secrets in the whole area. Wow, Brooks Novelty Antiques & Records is one great place. If you love life then you will love this place. I walked in and was blown away by everything. I was only there about 30 minutes, but could have stayed for hours the place was that wonderful with treasures everywhere

One of Brooks pinball games

I love old pinball machines. Growing up something about pinball grabbed me and has never let go. Well, Brooks has a couple of really cool, old pinball machines that are for sale, but if you ask they will let you play for free. That was really cool. All the games work and they are all in great condition. To me, nothing is better than playing pinball. I know in this day of superduper graphics pinball is so 20th century, but in my view nothing gets any better.

Another one of Brooks pinball games

One of the great things about the place is that everywhere you look there is something to see. It is total visual simulation. Like this old coke machine (right). There are working jukeboxes everywhere. Old candy machines, rock posters, music paintings all over. It is something that one has to see up close to fully get the impact of all of the great stuff that is there.

A old radio sign on display

A look inside Brooks

But the main thing is Brooks is music. There are tons of records there. Bins upon bins of records. The picture to the left does not do the place justice. There are rooms full of records. The one thing that is cool is that they are from all eras: swing, jazz, bluegrass, country, metal, rock, R&B, punk, ska. it is almost like if it was ever put on vinyl they must have it. Another cool thing is that they are all organized. If you are looking for Roy Clark on vinyl-it is right there in country under his name. That is how the whole store is. It must have taken a long time to do, but they did it right as many places don't.

Finley Heroes-The Story of the 1972 Oakland A's on vinyl

Another thing I loved was the amount of novelty, children's, sports, information records that they carry. It was amazing some of the stuff I found in the short time that I looked. Everything from Muhammad Ali meets the Tooth Fairy to Old Speeches to Mister Rodgers was on vinyl. It was amazing to look at it. For me it brought back my youth as I used to have a bunch of this stuff on record and kept busy listening to it on my old hi-fi record player as a kid.




So if you are in Old Sacramento, take a look at Brooks Novelty Antiques & Records (I know that this sounds like a paid plug, trust me it not I just truly fell in love with the place) and spend some time there. I know you will love it.

A profile of President Eisenhower on vinyl.