I think my brain is at capacity. Memories seem to be leaking out at the seams.
Christmas 1989. I knew what I wanted for Christmas -- a CD player. So I asked, and I did receive, in the form of a big fugly gray boombox from Garrard. It was an awful player. It had this bad tendency to just stop reading CDs and flash up all these weird LCD screen characters, like it was possessed, and required a slap on the hood to work again. Still, it was a CD player, and I was just happier than you could imagine.
I was even happier to discover that my parents, by skimping on quality, gave me quantity -- $100 to build the CD collection. So day after Christmas I high-tailed it down to the Sound Warehouse at 51st and Lewis. And here is where my memory is suddenly fuzzy. I swear, upon the Bible, the complete OED, and the Baseball Encyclopedia, that I bought six CDs that day. (And yes, I was a bit of an over-the-top REM fan in those days.)
- Fables of the Reconstruction, REM
- Life's Rich Pagent, REM
- Dead Letter Office, REM
- Never Mind The Bollocks, Sex Pistols
- Synchronicity, Police
- ?
My brain is working overtime trying to solve the mystery. Did I only buy five CDs? It's possible, but a CD at Sound Warehouse was $13.99(or less... I'm a little fuzzy there), and I know I had change (because I remember taking that money and going to QuikTrip with it afterwards), but I didn't have a lot of change (that is, not more than $10), and I only bought as many CDs as I could for $100. So, at $14, that means I had to have bought 6.
What could the sixth CD have been? Well, I was a little too in to REM, so it could have been Reckoning. After all, I'd pretty much worn out that tape. It could have been Murmur, too. I've also thought it might have been New Order, but that doesn't seem as likely.
Meanwhile, the mystery keeps pestering me, eating up valuable CPU time that could be going to other, more meaningful things. Like video games.
Comments
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Well, to say that we "cheaped" out on the CD player is a "cheap" shot. I think we paid about $250 for that "cheap" piece of .... It never worked right, I agree. I, on the other hand, have the very first CD we ever bought to play on the thing. It is a Christmas CD. If you remember, we used it (the CD and CD player)at the Christmas Party we had at Dad's office in 1989....the day it was about 5 degrees below zero. We did our best for being technically incompetent parents, even tho we raised techno geeks!!! We tried.... If I dig hard enough, that CD player is probably buried under some other junk in the garage at the old house....what cha think??? Do you want to revive it??? You might look on EBay and find it there under antique technical merchandise...
Sorry I can't help out on the CD purchase....I was musically challenged especially when it came to the hot group of the time. That's why I had you kids....to keep me up on the latest music and to program the VCR. Still deficient ..... I guess I need to reprogram you kids to keep up your part of the deal????????
Love,
Mom
Posted by: Mom | January 14, 2005 10:31 AM
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On your CD list - 2, 3 and 5 are sure bets. You didn't get the Sex Pistols until you were at CU. I honestly can't remember what you got otherwise - maybe it was some one-hit-alternative-wonders from the old KTOW days.
I got the same deal for Xmas that year too. I still have two of first CD's - Full Moon Fever by Tom Petty and 11 by the Smithereens (thank you, Jeff Turner). I think the rest found their way into the garage sale bin last summer since I didn't discover good music until I went off to college.
And yes - we did hit QT across the street (Bubble Tape and a cherry "Koolee", IIRC). Sadly both are history as Sound Warehouse couldn't keep up with Be$t Buy and later, Amazon.com and QT moved a mile south. Oh yeah - dad's office was across the street too (and we know that story too.)
Thanks for the trip down memory lane bro.
RW
Posted by: Middle Bro | January 22, 2005 11:14 AM
