Sony, How I Love Thee

I was 12 when the world really started moving from cassettes to CDs. I had my cassette player and was amazed by how awesome CDs were. You could skip directly to the song you wanted!

One Saturday morning my dad and I went to Best Buy. We started looking at the CD player/stereos. I ooohed and ahhed over them - some had remotes! I really loved a bookcase stereo that had separate speakers. I thought it was amazing. There was also one that was more like a boombox - one compact piece with a carrying handle (who put 23 D batteries in those things and carried them anywhere?).

My dad asked me which one I liked better and I said I liked both of them. He said, "If you were going to pick one to buy right now, which one would you pick?"

I started to get a little excited then, wondering if I was going to get one. It would have been unprecedented - a HUGE gift and no where near Christmas or my birthday. I really wanted the bookcase stereo, which was something like $99.99. The boombox was less, around $79.99. I didn't want to appear greedy so I said I'd pick the boombox.

Without another word, my dad reached to the bottom shelf and picked up a box containing the boombox. He started toward the registers as I screamed and ran to catch up, hardly able to contain my excitement. I can still see his back in my mind as I ran after him. I can see his black coat and the edges of the box showing on either side of him. It was a REALLY GOOD DAY, y'all.

The point of this story is that there is no way my dad and I could have imagined the life of that stereo when he bought it. I used it all through highschool and it went to college with me. It was my stereo in Colorado and the one I used to choose the song Eric and I wanted at our wedding. And right now, today, it is in Sam's room. Whenever he is in there playing he is listening to music. The last thing I do for him at bedtime is put in a CD and press play.

If you've done the math you've realized that my dad's $79.99 has been keeping me entertained for 18 years and it keeps on kicking. Every once in a while it won't play a CD or will take a moment to get going and I wonder if that is the day it finally quits working. But so far, so good. As I write this, Sam is listening to Disney's Hero Songs as he plays with his turtles.

Thanks, Dad.