This weekend while cleaning I found a box full of old cassette tapes. Yes, I still have some of those. I couldn't throw away some fabulous mixed tapes that either I made or were made for me. College mixes, high school summer mixes, 'cross country trip mix, etc. They are too priceless and precious to part with. How can you part with songs that itunes would laugh at you should you search for them?
In my box is a tape from way back in the day. We're talking 1st and 2nd grade back in the day. There is a classic collection of math games that my 2nd grade teacher recorded for me along with a personal note at the end. There is my 1st grade class singing a song at our Christmas assembly. There's a song from my 5th grade dance recital. There is a recording of me (with my friend Chrissy) in maybe 2nd or 3rd grade just reading random papers that I found. One of those papers was from Catholic mass. My young Jersey accent is reading about how Jesus died for us, struggling to pronounce some words. It's heartwarming. How can you throw that away?
It's sad that many people never experienced both the joy and agony of trying to hit the record button at just the right time while awaiting your favorite song on Casey Kasem's Top 40 (or 20 or 10) countdown. Yup, I have a tape that has some of those moments.
Then there is the tape from my senior year of college where many InterVarsity members piled into one apartment to record all of the songs that we loved singing for four years. We rotated guitar players (myself included) and all sang a joyful noise to God, to each other and in remembrance of four years of growth, friendship and love.
These tapes are a part of me. In a way they are kind of like those piles of rocks turned altars that people erected in the Bible in order to remember what God had done. Yes these tapes are my musical journey but they are my spiritual journey as well. They sustained me, made me laugh, made me cry, made me hope, made me sing along, made me dance....
Luckily I have a stereo with a tape deck (two actually) so that I can enjoy this walk down memory lane now and any time I need a reminder of what I was listening to at a particular time in my life. The remembrance continues, one tape at a time.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Dawn, that blog entry gave me chills! I love how music, specific songs or albums, echo memories in our lives. How precious!
You may want to convert them to CD's so that they don't degrade over time. I can help you with that sometime :)
I remember that I.V. singing night...I had to work at Wright Brothers' (remember that?! doesn't even exist anymore, mom and dad tell me) and got there so late it was almost over. And I'm still sorry I missed it. I should have done that instead of working.
Post a Comment