I walked in the house with a cassette tape player in hand and my 8-year-old asked me what on earth that thing was in my hand.
Our facilities manager at work was about to throw it away when he asked me if I wanted it – one man’s trash in another man’s treasure, right? I tend to be the person at my job that finds a use for that good box or that huge paper tube that someone is about to throw out.
I was elated and knew just what I needed it for.
I was a teen in the 80s when the cassette tape player was THE thing, and can remember taping a song from the radio on my cassette tape recorder and then playing it back over and over again to write down every word that was in the song. I would then play it back and sing every word with the artist.
I had many a mix tapes from my suitors as a teen, since that was the ultimate gift if you were interested in someone. I remember playing them in my pale blue 1983 AMC Spirit as I drove to school. Mix tapes were like a message on a cassette tape that you would play over and over again, comparable to sending reels to friends in this day in age I suppose.
Long gone are the days of the cassette tape, replaced by CDs, iPods, and now Spotify, Amazon, and Apple music. I have evolved with the decades and still enjoy music so much, but on the day that I was given a cassette tape player, I was about to unlock a memory.
I have a daughter-in-law that gave me my very first grandchild – a boy, sweet baby, Knox. She is so good at taking pics and videos to chronicle him at every stage and new milestones he reaches. I love to see her monthly bits she puts together of his life. I find myself watching them over and over again. What a blessing to have those reels to watch as he grows; we live in such an amazing time of technology.
Meanwhile, I sit here with a cassette tape.
I have not been able to listen to this for over a decade and was so curious if I would ever hear it again, so the cassette tape player was such a gift. No videos, no reels, but this cassette was about to unlock the tears.
I told my son what I was carrying in my hand and immediately put the cassette tape in. He heard voices and asked again what it was. I heard two boys laughing and yelling what they had got for Christmas, and then I heard a toddler squealing that she had got Silly Putty and Weebles, exclaiming that they wobble so they won’t fall down.
Then I heard her voice. She said, “Cheryl, What is under the tree for you?” and we laughed, all while my brothers were in the background playing loudly. You see, my mom would hide a tape cassette player in the corner of our living room and press record when we came down the stairs on Christmas morning to listen to our reactions.
Cue the cassette tape play tears.
My mom passed away in 2017, and there is not a day that goes by that I don’t think of her and long to hear her voice, and I got to hear her voice. I am sure there will be many days ahead that I listen to that cassette tape over and over again, once again memorizing every word.
“Are you ok, Mom?” my son said as he saw me holding that cassette tape player and sobbing. “Of course, I am. This cassette tape player just unlocked my momma’s sweet voice.”
So take those videos, make the reels, interview your parents or grandparent, and maybe even hide your phone to record your kids’ reactions on Christmas morning. Those precious memories will mean so much in the decades of life that await you.
