Sunday, November 22, 2020

Back when the earth was cooling. . . .


My trusty (and only remaining) CD/tape deck system finally gave up and locked into paralysis. This shouldn’t have been surprising since we’d bought it in 1997. It was a nice little unit, with reasonably sized speakers, and everything fit snugly on one shelf of a bookcase, so I was sorry to see it go.

          I was also sorry because what was I to do with the CDs I’d gathered over the years? Happily, a foray into the basement unearthed a small unit that fit even more easily on a shelf and had the added bonus of being able to also play my even older audiotapes. Why would I go out to the web and pay for more Eric Clapton, James Taylor, or Mark Knopfler when I already have it?  

          Not a complete dinosaur, a while back I had downloaded most of the CDs to my computer, and from there to my phone, but I can’t do that anymore since my shiny new laptop came without a CD port. Good thing my car is over 10 years old, since that provides one more place to listen.

          I’m beginning to feel like one of the poor souls who bypassed VHS and chose Betamax.

 

9 comments:

  1. I am decidedly a slow moving dinosaur and grateful that I can still listen to CDs.
    Mind you, I will be glad when I can get himself to relinquish the last of his VHS tapes (that we can no longer view).

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  2. Music is so readily available now- I can listed to anything that I love just like that *snap*. I gave all of my vinyl away, and recently all of my cd's. some I have had to search high and low for because they were weird.All gone now.Pretty sure you can find someone in the neighborhood wanting to give their player away, seems the thing these days.

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  3. I donated my CD's to the library at my next to last downsizing. I know where to go to borrow them.

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  4. I searched high and low for a laptop with a CD/DVD tray, within my price range and was astonished to find even the gaming models didn't have them as most people download their games now. So I settled for one without, but kept my old laptop which has one, in case I need it although a lot of my DVDs have been converted and the movies are on usb sticks.

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  5. I was surprised to learn new computers don't come with a CD port. my daughter was surprised I was surprised. why would you want one, she asked. uh, download music. oh, nobody does that anymore. it's all available online for free via internet 'radio' stations.

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    1. Still learning how to find those. In the meantime, I want what I want! (She said, stamping her foot.)

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  6. I downloaded all my CDs onto my computer long ago and got rid of most of them, but I saved about 10 favorites that I just can't part with. I can't play them, either! Technology just keeps marching along. (And yet some people have gone back to vinyl records and analog photographic film, which I do not get AT ALL.)

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  7. When we bought Beta even though VHS was winning at that point (but we had good Beta suppliers so it didn’t matter), I remember the salesman telling us that they would both soon enough be replaced. He was speaking of discs, but I don’t think even he envisioned streaming at the time. I can’t quit recall if this was before our first computer or slightly after.

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