Sunday, October 13, 2013

SHHH!! The 90's are Calling!!

Today, I had intentions of blogging about my childhood.  I thought of that topic while downloading music on to my Ipod.

A task that I never thought possible 20 years ago. 


I mean, over 4,000 songs on a single (ever-so-tiny device) with just a few clicks?? 


Do me a favor - those in their mid to late thirties.... close your eyes and remember what we had to do to get music without having to buy the whole album...

When I was 14 and I wanted a track or specific song, I'd first have to have an empty or at least 1/2 empty cassette tape. 



What a typical stereo looked like from my day...
With that cassette, I could fit an average of twenty songs per tape - which always depended on the length of the song or type of song I wanted. 
I'd also need a stereo with capabilities of recording.  The little red button in the options, right there next to "PLAY l> "  You'd have to have PLAY and RECORD pushed down, along with the PAUSE button. 
Then came the waiting....






The waiting till that one song that has been playing for weeks and sometimes months came onto your radio station.  That song that it seems everyone else owns - everyone else - but not you. 

There you are on the bus, on the school ride home, all of  the friends around you are listening to THAT ONE song that you're in absolute love with, there they are - just jamming to it...
If you were lucky, they'd have the volume turned up so loud, that you too could hear it, even at a muffled decibel. 

So, anyway, this is how it would usually play out for me while waiting for that perfect and ever-so-wanted song to come on to the radio.

Everything would be set up on my dresser.  I'd have the radio on and tuned in, and I'd go about my regular routine - or at least the one routine that I had that kept me trapped in my bedroom till I got what I wanted. 
That routine would be either doing homework, putting laundry away, or cleaning my room. 

 

But, it never failed.

"SYLVIA!!!!!!!"

I'd be summoned to help set the table or to answer an onslaught of questions by a parent about my school day....

Or, I'd be waiting and then I'd have to run to the bathroom....

Whatever the case was, whenever my song would come on...

I'd be straining to listen, eyes wide open and hear the song come on,  I'd say "SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" real loud, and then do an array of gymnastics through my entire house that would make any Olympic coach proud.  I would literally run siblings and pets over to get to that RECORD button on time....

Up the staircase, sometimes taking two steps at a time, past the kitchen right in front of me, jump over the dog, bolt past the bathroom, lightning fast down the hall past the laundry room, skip the two mini remaining steps at the end of the hall and literally one foot it to the left where my bedroom was, and where the song is already 10 seconds in, and dive onto the RECORD button. 


SIGH....


But, even though I missed that first few seconds of that beloved song,  I'd play it over and over again.  At the highest of high volumes, sometimes blowing out my speakers on my stereo or headphones.    I'd have that song on standby whenever I had to get the mail from the end of the driveway or walk across the creek to my grandparent's place - my Walkman, my AWESOME Walkman saw many sets of headphones attached to it. 

Of course, with cassettes came the task of winding the tape back into it, or the tape getting jammed into your equipment, at which case you'd still have to wind the tape back into it.  Then, even with all the bad sounding fixes embedded into it, I'd still play that song over and over again...

Until, I'd hear something even better...

Something even more enticing than the song I'm currently addicted to. 

I'd start that process all over again. 

Yup, that's what we used to do as kids and teens. 
How spoiled is this generation? 
I'd say pretty darned spoiled....

I mean, just look at what kids today have....




































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