Looking through belongings from my past, debating whether to toss, donate, put in storage, or find a place in my maxed out of space apartment.  Such as a cassette tape.  I still have most of them.  They are so loaded for me. They were my life at that time in life that is just so about a song speaking to me like nothing else could. Far more than CDs or even vinyl.  The purchase, the listen, the assemblage of mixed tapes—labored over for hours.  Listening in my bedroom, in the car, rewinding, making THE tape to win over Richard or Jason or some other crush.

Many cassettes I have since replaced with CDs or mp3s. But it’s hard to respend and it’s not the same as these specific objects which took me away: Hooligans, The Unforgettable Fire and The Joshua Tree, the Squeeze singles album, and the New Order tape I acquired at camp.  And then later, my tape of Prince and Deep Forest and Enigma for running in college, played every day for years.

The Hidden Persuaders demo.

My own first demos, recorded on 4-track.

It’s the mix tapes that are just so perfectly…mixed. Those I can’t toss.  Mix cassettes with names like High School Love and Depression.  The songs that were played over and over as I yearned in the pink glow of my girly bedroom.

My 45s stacked high, mostly one hit wonders of the 80s are also part of classic nostalgia.  I even own “I Eat Cannibals.”

These purchases were well considered. I couldn’t just have anything, like we can now, for free. I had to want it, beg for it, save up for it, wait for Christmas or the Tooth Fairy.