This post brought to you by Soccer Mom in Denial - posting every Monday on a different musical memory (some are freakin' hilarious!).
*****************************************************
It's funny how a song can take you to a moment so clearly. I was never really one for music - I listened to the radio, sometimes bought tapes, but nothing like my friends who would camp out for concert tickets or blow their allowance at the record store (remember those places?). And yet, music still has the ability to bring me back to a time and place.
I received and made a fair number of mix tapes in my life. I remember two boyfriends who gave me mix tapes and if I could find them today I would play them (the tapes, not the boys) - on what, I don't know. They were given to me when I went away - first for the summer, and then later to college. I can't recall every song on them but when I hear something from either playlist I immediately remember those tapes - and where I was when I first heard them.
I don't recall any CD mixes copied onto tapes. I tend to think that's because there wasn't a boyfriend to make them for me and I didn't have a car. It's funny how a whole period of your life can be forgotten because you weren't driving around listening to your car stereo.
As I got older the technology has improved to where mixes are easy to make - no synching of different machines so you avoid that gap or maximize the number of songs you get on one cassette. Just burn some CDs while you're drinking coffee. Rearrange the music to suit your tastes.
For my sister's birthday a few years ago, we all chipped in and got her the latest iPod. We each added our own playlist - my husband did arias, her friend did jazz and blues, I did 80's music, my brother did Charlie Brown Christmas, and my other brother did Tom Jones. It was our extra gift to her - from each of us, to her.
My friends have also given me mixes - to encourage me to run, to commemorate a birthday, to provide background music to a brunch. And I love every CD. (Still not sure about that Hilary Duff song, Aparna).
It is with this feeling that I especially applaud SMID's birthday CD project. The technology may change and the CDs might get lost - but just maybe, hopefully, those kids will come upon that CD someday and say "I remember being 7!"
Monday, December 03, 2007
Mixin' It Up
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I actually remember MY mix tapes better then the ones boys gave me (oh how I loved that "play" line - you's really funny, girlie!).
I'll hear a song and think "next should be this song." Which only happens on my lone cassette tape.
Thanks for being a regular MM participant!
What a great post. You've really hit it on the head with so many things in here.
The record stores, the cassette recordings, the mix tapes... oh, so much nostalgia in one post.
Just. So. Well. Said.
If I really want to date myself, I could add to your story about how my dh's uncle used to put tapes on an eight track so I could play them in my car--put all of my Elvis albums on the eight tracks so I could listen to them over and over and over . . .
Fun, thanks for bringing that memory back to me.
Post a Comment