Tales of Technology - Part I

My first cassette player was a Norelco. Seriously. It was a present for my 18th birthday when I was a freshman in college in (gulp) (I hate to admit this) ( does this make me an old fogey?) in 1966. Okay, I said it. I loved that cassette player. It was cool. I was cool. But I soon learned that technolgy almost always comes with a catch.

Clever me thought that instead of taking notes, I could just record my college lectures. How wrong could I have been? After amassing thousands of hours (only a slight exaggeration) of lectures I realized, to my horror, that I hadn't paid any attention in class and had no notes. All I had were some really bad tape recordings WHICH I STILL HAD TO LISTEN TO. I had to sit through the class twice, so to speak, and the second time the professor sounded as if he (they were almost always men back then) were in an accoustically-challenged drainage pipe. It was humiliating to have to beg for classmate's notes. "I thought you didn't need notes, Liz. You have that snazzy tape recorder." Grovel, grovel, grovel.

My worst tape recorder experince came later that year at the expense of Dave Brubeck, who was playing in Fargo ( yes, as in Fargo, North Dakota.) My future husband, Gary, got the tickets as a surprise becuase I was such a Brubeck fan. We had front row tickets in an intimate little theater. I would be sitting practically next to Dave Brubeck as he played! I was so excited, but things started to go downhill almost immediately. Of course, there was the obligatory blizzard which made driving from Grand Forks to Fargo hazardous. We didn't see the unfortunate dog who ran out in front of Gary's car. There are few sounds worse than the thud of a dog being hit. The dog somehow disappeared and could not be found. By then we were hardly in shape or the mood to enjoy a concert.

Before we had even left for the concert my beloved cassette player had failed me and was in the shop. The owner had been kind enough to loan me a portable reel-to-reel tape recorder. How was I to know that you shouldn't peek at it while you're recording? The tape exploded like projectile vomit out of the recorder as I scampered under Brubeck's piano trying to scoop up escaping audio tape that slithered around the floor like a deranged snake. Dave continued to play and smile. I still cringe in horror when I think of that night. The tapes have never been played. Maybe I can take them on the Antiques Roadshow.

Did I give up on technology? Heck no! More "Tales of Technology" to come.