Ipods, MP3 players,satellite radio. I am dumbstruck by the fact that more music can be squeezed into a credit card sized device than on all of the albums stuffed away in innumerable dusty boxes in my closet. Goobers everywhere walking around with little tiny earphones listening to what I can only assume is amazingly clear sound.
But, it just ain't right, dammit. As an undergrad at A&M in the late 70's, big was better. The guy with the biggest array of receivers, amplifiers, equalizers, tape decks, turntables and tower sized speakers was the go to guy whenever a dorm party broke out. Speaker cable and power cords were stretched from room to room, and windows had to be opened to keep them from blowing out as the massive bass speakers compressed the air in the room. Hell, even headphones resembled something the Apollo astronauts might have worn.
I began to put together my component stereo system in 1978, with the purchase of a Pioneer AM/FM stereo receiver, and a couple of speakers. This receiver was to replace the one I had with the built in 8-track player. Damn thing cost $185, and I had to put it on layaway. When I made that last payment and took that beauty home, I sat and watched the various gauges and meters dance, as I cranked out KLOL-FM 101 out of Houston. I eventually, little by little, year after year, added components, eventually culminating in the purchase of some new fangled device to play CD's. I had run out of jacks on the back of the thing, and to decide what to give up. I finally settled on the equalizer, because, after all, who can live without cassettes and albums?
Believe it or not, I still have every piece of this amazing system...packed in boxes next to the albums. I am going to find a place for it some day. Then I am going to put it all together, crank that puppy up and blast out those huge speakers. With any luck, I will blow those pussy little headphones off the kid across the street.
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Baby, when you crank that sucker up, I am SO there.
Growing up in the 1980's, my mother's stereo was unequivocally regarded as THE main focal point of our home. It was like a great, booming musical shrine at which we all worshipped like zealots.
Shirley (my mom) ordered the original componants and speakers from the JC Penney catalog. The day they were delivered to our house was celebrated like the second holy coming of Christ -- and I don't think my mom turned the stereo off for, like, three whole days and three whole nights after that.
Shirley was an "album junkie" -- thoroughly addicted to the vinyl. She would pile STACKS of records onto the stereo turntable, and we would go about our daily lives with music constantly playing in the background It was as if we had our own personal family soundtrack. To this day, I still cannot clean my house without music playing.
As a single parent household we had our share of money problems, but no matter what financial hardships befell us -- no matter what she had to sell or put into hock -- the stereo always stayed. She was forced to sell our dining room table at one point, and we all had to eat dinner on the floor, but we did so to the sounds of Tommy James and the Shondelles, by God!
Such a vinyl junkie was my mom, that she didn't buy herself a single cassette tape until I was in junior high. Although the stereo was now quite old, the tape deck was basically brand new -- which she quickly remedied by joining one of those "tape of the month" clubs.
That $185 in 1978 would be the equivalent of over $500 today.
About $5,000 in a good mutual fund ...
SWEARENGEN: "Not throwing my hands up or my dress above my ears don't mean I ain't awestruck."
Been There. I remember each piece of my grand rack system falling by the wayside until only the receiver remained and it too passed on to the great Circuit City in the sky.
Funny thing is those Bose speakers that are about 6" tall sound better and louder than the big ass Sanyo speakers with the fake wood.
Al,
You have no idea how hard it was for me to resist typing that old man mantra "That was a lot of money back then" when I was speaking of the $185 cost of that receiver.
Eddie,
You are hereby banned from my site for insinuating that these pussy little speakers of today can hold a candle to the monster towers of yesteryear.
Please forgive me Bat, I must have been drunk.
PS check out my updated blog.
Yes, please do forgive Cousin Ed, Batman. He worships you after all... as we all do.
And though you could easily crush us all beneath the awesome weight of your mighty boot, we know that you will not do so, for you are just and true.
worship?!?!
I pity the fool!!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=xx5p_wv_izo
I always thought Batman would crush us under the weight of his golf sandle enclosed foot?
Well, I am back from my trip to Brownwood. Thank you for the pickles. They look yummy. Waiting six weeks will be very hard, except I do know they won't be worth eating before then regardless of how scrumptious they look
Hope you enjoy them. The waiting is the hardest part.
I knew a guy named Fred Pickle.
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