I just assembled a nice 30 minute playlist for my swim tomorrow. It took me less than a minute. That got me reminiscing about the mixes I used to make for my old Sony Walkman when I was in grade school.
I had this big ol' dual cassette stereo from Citizen that was purchased at the nearby Consumers Distributing. It had AM/FM, dual cassete decks and a record player on top. I'd spend hours and hours in my room dubbing the perfect mix onto a blank cassette tape.
My source material came from my extensive vinyl 45 singles and cassette tape collections or songs I'd copied from the radio. When copying from the radio not only did I have to deal with the DJ talking over parts of the song but I'd usually record from 680 CFTR which meant a copy of AM quality sound. I didn't even care.
Because it required a great deal of time and energy to get these mixes right, there was a great deal of pride when I'd finish a tape that was exactly right. Today, when it takes less than a minute to assemble such a mix, I don't have that feeling. I miss that feeling.
