Good memories … like saving up all of the paper route money for that first Walkman® tape player back in the Reagan era. And let me tell you, with the literacy rate back in the Holler, it was looking like the Bush 2.0 era before I would save up enough money. And thanks to wonderful folk at Sony, the old portable casette player is still being sold today … so I can still play those treasured Kenny Rogers and Juice Newton tapes.
In fact, once I ended the romantic relationship with the female GPS in the Nissan Syphilis (it’s another story), I discovered the vehicle has a cassette player! I sure wish I could write to the junior executive in Yokohama that kept that accessory on the list:
- Keyless remote? (Hai.)
- Leather interior? (Hai.)
- GPS? (Hai!)
- Reversing camera (Hai!)
- Folding wing mirrors? (Hai!)
- 12 stack CD player, 6 speaker sound system? (Hai!)
- 37 drink holders? (lie ... 40!)
- Cassette player? (ano … Hai?)
- Eight track cassette player? (… nani?)
Although Kenny, Dolly and Juice bang out of 6 speakers well (it is a matter of opinion, She Who Must Be Obeyed would use another adjective), the Police cassettes are not holding up so great. When I put my Reggatta de Blanc tape in, I think Sting is singing some Satanic verse to my kids about offering up the first born hamster to the Lord of the Forest.
And I am a little disappointed that they left out the 8-track player … no matter how fast I wind my Molly Hatchet cassette, I cannot get any Gator Huntin’ or Disaster Flirtin.
But Jack-Black-porta-phonagraph-man also invokes the Bad Memories.
Like that time on the train coming home from Puzzle Palace the other week. You see it’s truly come full circle … because thanks to Sony, now I’ve got this phone that is also a Walkman®. I can’t even picture the 1982 version of that device … but it would have a lot more wires. And curly cords. And I’ve also got these great (Sony) noise cancelling earbud head phones. Well as I’m bumping and jostling the Aunties to get on the train, something gets knocked and I lose all the music. In fact with the noise cancellers on … it was like a Sci Fi movie in which all 200 people packed into a small cylindrical tube suddenly went silent while their mouths are still moving. To be fair, travelling on trains in Asia is pretty much like that anyway. I can’t imagine the folks back home putting their phones in silent mode to get on to public transport.
So I’m trying to get the sound back by pushing buttons on the tiny phone/Walkman®/movie player/Internet/game portable thing-a-ma-jig. No sound. It’s only after 5 train stops that I realize the headphones have come loose.
I realize this, because I take out the noise cancellers from my ears and hear music blaring out into our carriage. So I learn than my Walkman® phone has the wonderful feature of swapping to speaker when the headphones unplugged.
And I learned this lesson well, because from the looks of all of The Islanders on that carriage, they had never heard Taylor Swift before.
