It's Just One Step Up From 8-Tracks

S was in the Navy while I was in college. This is how old we are: we WROTE LETTERS the whole time we were apart. And called each other.....long distance.....from a "land line." Actually, he usually called from a pay phone. Did I tell you that I thought about buying someone stationary when they graduated from high school about 7 years ago? Then it occurred to me: they have a laptop with their own e-mail account. Why would anyone want stationary when they go off to college? Sigh. You don't want to hear the story about how S and I went shopping for a new answering machine many years ago and out loud in the aisle we said, "Where do you put the tape? I don't think this one comes with a tape!"

S also had a Walkman. I put a link there for those who are too young to know that it was the kind of Walkman that played cassette tapes. Oh wait....here's a link for cassette tapes. I don't think it's possible that any of my readers are that young, but you never know. He had quite the collection of cassette tapes because when you live and work with hundreds of other guys in tight ship quarters, it's nice to put on your headphones and listen to music. And drown out the sounds of puking. Hey, I've never been to that part of a ship, I'm just telling you what I've heard. (Oh, I'm just kidding about that link. They were early 90's headphones, not late 70's!)

So the reason I'm telling you all this is that recently I moved some furniture around and found 2 entire drawers of cassette tapes. Some were mine, some belonged to S. Tonight, I'm going to reach into the WalMart sack at my feet and pull out a random tape to share with you! Are you ready? Let us see what is in our collection that has sat, untouched, in our nightstand drawer for lo these many decades.

drumroll......................................

OK, actually that was quite boring. Apparently somewhere along the years, we got rid of most of the 90's music and just kept our Christian music. So, I guess it hasn't sat there untouched. Still, there were some gems in there. How about this one from 1984. Do you suppose there is any possible way that thing plays?

Oh...I gotta tell you. I just now opened that cassette case to see if there was really a Petra tape inside and WHAT a feeling of nostalgia that was! The feel of the case in my hands, the way I automatically slide that tape out into my hand like I've done 4 million times before....that was weird. When was the last time you opened a cassette case? It was like deja vu!

Also, I'm sorry to admit this but I also found this tape. Oh come on, that link doesn't have a picture and I think a picture is required for you to be properly horrified with me. Here. I want you to know that I looked long and hard in my college town record store for that tape just so I could get S a copy of the song "Convoy." If you don't know what Convoy is, you can google it yourself and you will find out it was NOT ONLY a song, BUT A MOVIE AS WELL!!!

As to WHY I was looking for the song Convoy for S, there is no link to explain that behavior.

Also, I'll just end with this story. Sister and I both had tape players in our bedroom. Well, I had a tape player. She, and I mean this with all sincerity, had a ghetto blaster. That is actually what we called it. With straight faces. I'm not sure we knew what a ghetto was or where that name originated. We weren't saying it to be funny. That was the name of her tape player and that is how we referred to it. I'm just really hoping that we never did that outside of our bedroom for other people to hear. Gee whiz, what nerds.

ANYWAY.....we both kept a blank cassette tape ready at all times and when a favorite song came on the radio, we would FLY across the room to push "record." If you were really lucky, the D.J. would announce the song beforehand so you got the whole thing and not the song minus the first few notes. When the tape was full, we labeled it "Radio Songs" and we had our own tape of all our favorite songs.

I found my sister's tape in that sack. I sure would like to know what's on it. Wouldn't you love to know what songs were so all-fired good that she would fly her 16 year old self across the room to catch them on a Gold Supertape 90?

But alas, I don't own a cassette player that works anymore.

I'm FAR TOO high tech for that.

OK fine so I just threw away 10 or so VHS tapes with recorded TV shows on them. And YES, I have a VCR.