I get memory jolts just looking at cassette tapes. I still have some I’ve had since I was 13 years old. I will never, ever throw them out, even if they don’t play anymore. They are like little oracles. I have had my collection sitting in a few (filthy) boxes in my office for about eight years. In our old tour van we had a plywood box under the front passenger’s seat filled with tapes and CD’s. Whoever had first bought our van had done some hot van mods for retirement like making a wooden big gulp/giant truck stop coffee rack over the center console, and of course, the world’s heaviest drawer complete with a carpeted front and handle that fit under the seat. Bougie! Somehow I dragged that anchor around from town, to town, to town, infinity, along with several other larger boxes of tapes. Most people would have scrapped them long ago. Cassette tapes attract dirt, and not just any dirt, but the fine, black grime that attaches itself to boxes shipped long distances in semi trucks. Dusty toxic feeling dirt that seems to penetrate your hands and give you a little chemical hangover. Well, at least if you sit around cleaning them for five hours…
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