A Walkman User…….Thirty-Plus Years Later…
Heh?……………………………………Can’t Hear You……….
From LP’s to 8-Track Tapes…….to cassettes…
When the era of the Sony-Walkman debuted…….I was all for it.
I’m paying for it now………………..my hearing’s shot…
I was traveling a lot at that time.
Sometimes for more than thirty weeks out of the year…
My Walkman was perfect for disappearing into my music (at high volume) when I was on a plane or a train…
It was my own little piece of home……………..in my ears…
No ear-buds existed…….
…….just a variety of headsets.
While in the air, the style I preferred the most was the big, huge ear-muff-style head-sets.
I could adjust the treble or bass on my left ear or my right ear.
I could also individually adjust the volume per ear.
It was great for drowning out screaming toddlers or overly-chatty, impromptu travel-buddies who were jammed next to me on the plane flight.
I had my personal song-mix on a number of ultra-modern-cassette tapes.
While home I would meticulously copy my favorite music from our albums to my precious cassettes.
And away I would go with my stash of music to the next site I was scheduled to work on the women’s professional tennis tour.
My mega-muffs were great.
They would almost thoroughly block out any of the jet’s white noise, along with the unwanted gregarious travelers next to me.
I had my inflatable neck pillow and my eye shields……………..
…….my arsenal of sensory-barriers worked…….
……………..that and a Unisom knocked back with a mediocre Bourbon & Coke……..
……………..but I would usually save my special concoction for flying into or out of Rio de Janeiro’s or Hong Kong’s (the old one) airports……………..those of you who have flown through those airports and survived know what I’m talking about…
*****Yep—Kai Tak Wasn’t My Imagination—It WAS Scary*****
So, I’d crank up my music, chant a few internal mantras, and try to forget that so many passenger’s without wings and so very, very much heavy metal was hurtling through the air in the most miraculous way…….
I’m not afraid of flying…………………I would however bombard my eardrums with loud volumes of music ranging from AC/DC to Vollenweider…………..(and ZZ Top)-(Oh, and before my knee & hip replacements I’ve been told I had ZZ Top’s walk down perfectly).
But, let’s face it, my Walkman got me through the perils of air travel……………..in a very loud way…
Heh?
4 thoughts on “A Walkman User…….Thirty-Plus Years Later…”
I can’t even live without my tiny flac player (flac being a lossless compression standard). 512 gigabytes of punk rock, classical, every Velvet Underground album (and a few bootlegs), and about 37 Original Broadway Cast lps (transferred from my vinyl). No hearing loss yet (knock on wood).
Heh?
OMG…..yep. I can relate
You didn’t use chrome cassettes? Tell me you just forgot to mark the Dolby. Earbuds will still deafen you, cell phones may create a hazardous EM field, possibly leading to potential brain problems, eyestrain from trying to read small print, and carpal tunnel in the fingers from constant texting. All in all, from the technologically caused, physical damage standpoint, you didn’t do to badly. Speaking of ZZ Top I saw them last summer touring with John Fogerty. Who by the way, , after 47 years,has finally buried the hatchet with Stu Cook and Doug Clifford. Do not be surprised to see a CCR reunion tour, with Fogerty’s son Shane, taking his uncles spot.