Last Saturday was the annual Hamilton yard sales. Hamilton is a "suburb" of the local city in which I used to reside. I'm not quite sure if it could even be classified as a suburb, since I'm not sure of the requirements.
Anyway. I found a few things for the family and a quarter Walkman. Yes, a classic Sony Walkman. Which means I dug out my cassettes from under the bed and am now jamming to John Cougar and Debbie Gibson.
After a few years of MP3s and 2 CD players before that, I found myself back at a Walkman. I think I prefer it. Granted the MP3 player is smaller and they're still making CDs, but there's something about physically holding the Walkman, flipping tapes, replacing the fuzzy piece that keeps falling out.
I can't remember my first Walkman, it was probably handed down to me. But I can remember finding a water-proof one at a yard sale as a kid (never tried it out to see if it truly was water proof) and I can even remember the awesome one I got for Christmas around the turn of the Millennium. That thing had an awesome radio, little push buttons instead of the clunky buttons, even an LCD screen that literally told me it was playing or what station I was on. I ended up busting that Walkman like the rest I remember by falling on them while rollerblading.
So as long as there's a bin at the thrift shops full of 80s cassette tapes, I may never truly replace my Walkman.
Thanks, Sony (and to the people selling a Walkman for a quarter) for the musical device of my childhood.
