Lesson from a Cassette Tape
Capture moments while you can
The Backstory
Sometimes the simplest moments seem like they don’t matter. This particular story combines nostalgia with personal history that is almost unbelievable. Buckle up for this one; it is one of my longer stories.
My parents saved a lot of things from my childhood. A few years ago, my brother and I got the chance to rummage through the basement crawl space in our attempt to reclaim our toys, games, and things we thought were really awesome… okay… many things are still awesome like teenage mutant ninja turtles. Oh yea.
Going through the old toys and things was quite the trip down memory lane. I don’t remember as many things as I probably should (just ask my wife!), but somehow the objects that I went through managed to bring back stories and events that I thought didn’t matter — turns out they did.
One example was the plastic green army men (fun fact… they were inducted into to National Toy Hall of Fame in 2014) that I had in a C130. I played with those on an old dresser with potted plants and open desk serving as terrain… having battles that would last for days, because I refused to put the toys away. Hey, I was “pausing” or “saving” that moment of battle. Surprisingly, mom let that happen. The green army men on are on a shelf display in my bedroom as I write this (just look how cool they look on display):
The handful items that were pulled from the crawl space happened at least a couple of years ago and were stored in a corner of my bedroom under the watch of the green army men. Among the items was a small, blue, double-sided case that was specifically designed to hold cassette tapes… a lot of them. Last spring, I finally brought the tapes box down to my office in the basement, and here they sit to this day.
It wasn’t until I was looking around the room for inspiration for an ordinary object to tell a story about that I found something truly amazing and something that made me speechless — and stay up listening.
The Object
When my eye caught the blue case, I immediately thought, “Now there’s an object that could have a cool lesson wrapped around it.” The cassette tape. State-of-the-art, preferred, at-home recording technology of the 1980s.
Double-side tapes with 1 hour of recording time. Remember the joys of rewinding and using your finger to wind up tape that spewed out all over the place? The good-ole, inefficient days.
As I was going through the tapes, I stumbled across classics like M.C. Hammer, The Simpsons ‘Do the Bartman,’ Hulk Hogan’s Hulkamania workout, and hits by the Oakridge Boys and Aerosmith. Pretty eclectic mix! Oh, and there’s a bunch of Disney books on tape and holiday soundtracks.
In addition, there were many handwritten tapes with recordings of radio hits of the day, and then I came across two tapes with my dad’s handwriting on them…
Boys 1983, 1984, (1985) to Easter 1985; Easter 1985 to Christmas 1985; August 1986
I paused when I touched them. Admittedly… a bit stunned. I didn’t remember them, and judging by the title, all I could think about was, “Would these still play? Is this what’s really recorded on here?”
And the bigger question, “Did I have something that could actually play a cassette tape?!… a tape player?”
Mission to Listen
At this point, I needed to find something to play the tape. I looked around my office and found my old Sony “dream machine” clock I got when I was around 12 years old sitting near my desk… it had a tape player… and it still works! I put the first tape from 1983 in.
My dad time stamped the audio interview with my brother and I. I was 3 years old. My brother was about one. As I was listening to myself 32 years ago, I thought about the path the was taken from then to now. Crazy. In one sequence, my dad mentioned to my brother something along the lines of “you’re not going to believe this when you get older.”
You were right, dad.
I listened for a long time sitting at my desk. I couldn’t do anything else. I tried. I was entranced by the thought of how things were then, but what is more interesting… I thought about my dad. I noticed how he interacted with us in the recording; how much he cared, laughed, and joked with us; and the occasional cameo by mom. Capturing those seemingly not-so-special moments in time… just interacting on a typical day.
I don’t have vivid memories of dad acting silly like that with us… I was too young. It was one of those moments when someone like my dad, who isn’t the most outward showman of feelings, was caught on tape showing how much he loved his family.
Of course, this immediately made me think of how I am with my own two daughters that are now 5 and 2 years old; how I interact with them; how they interact with me; how much I want to see them grow up; how much they should cherish being kids; and how I hope they know how much I love them.
Saving the Cassette Tapes
It’s incredible how these tapes lasted so long without getting destroyed or lost. Just imagine how many times and places these cassettes changed locations, boxes, hands, and were probably close to being lost forever. So, now what?
At this point, I’m thinking, “Holy crap. I have to find a way to save these two cassettes and move them out of a slowly dying, if not dead, technology.” Tapes will eventually die by the nature of their material… become obsolete, erased over time, or few people will have the technological hardware to even play them. I had to find a way to transfer the tapes to digital.
I had a tape player, but did I have something that I could output sound to my computer. I thought about playing the sound and recording the speaker with a microphone, but the already rough sound quality would just get worse. Fortunately, I found an old school tape player in my basement storage that had a headphone out port. It was a big port, so I then had to search for a converter to move the 1/4 jack to 3/8 standard microphone jack.
Long story short, I found one, and played the tapes with the audio feeding into my computer via the microphone jack and used the sound recording function to save them as WMA files, which I would later convert to MP3 files. It worked! That also meant I got to listen to those captured moments again. Moments in time. Captured. Remembered. Saved.
The Lesson
It was fascinating to listen to the tapes, but it was even more fascinating to think about the “what if” the tapes were never recorded? Much like photography, capturing moments in time helps us reminisce and enjoy what life was and will offer… like a time capsule.
If it wasn’t for the context, my own 4 year old voice sounds a lot like my daughter’s voice. What I realized quickly is that my family is growing up… fast. What were we doing to capture moments like my dad did, so my kids can see what they were like when they were little?
What memories are we creating?
What I also realized is that photographing or video recording every day, average stuff is a lot more interesting than standing in front of something and fake smiling. Similarly, I haven’t forgot the advice my wife gave me when were dating… photos are more interesting to look at later with people in them.
Key take-aways from the cassette tape:
- Capture moments while you can with what you have.
- Rewind every once in a while. The past can teach us about the future.
- Preserve files by updating the format, or they may be gone forever.
- Create memorable experiences. You’ll remember what you did more than what you owned.
We were all kids once, and sometimes, we need to go back to what seemed like a simpler time; when our world was much smaller; when fun and learning was all we had to worry about. Thanks Mom and Dad.
BONUS: Since finding the recordings, my brother and I decided to make another, every-day audio entry… “it’s December 19, 2015" — 25 years after the last recording captured in 1990. It’s crazy to think about how we got where we are… and that we found a way to get along.
Written by Shaun Holloway.
