When I was really young, my Dad had an AIWA reel-to-reel audio player (actually Dad STILL has this wonderfully archaic piece of stereo equipment but that's not the point of my story). He had a fairly large collection of tape reels for it - mostly because he won a 630 CHED contest (way back when they played music) for a complete set of reel-to-reel recordings of the countdown to that year's top song.
Back then, Dad was a HUGE Beatles fan and subsequently so was I. No one except him was allowed to touch his magic music machine so I would ask him play Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da over and over and over again. Since I was too young to read, I remember marking the cardboard jacket with a dot or a star so that I could tell which one it was out of the sea of white.
When Dad was at work and Mom was busy, I'd sneak into the living room, find the marked jacket, put the tape reel on the AIWA and ever so carefully wind the end around a blank reel. I'd plug in a set of headphones and do a final 'parental check'. Then I would adjust the anticipated volume before finally flipping the 'ON' switch.
I'd dance around the living room to my favorite tune with gigantic headphones on for a few magical minutes before rewinding the tape reel to the start and putting everything back EXACTLY the way I found it.
The best part is that 30 + years later, I still love that song. I don't think this little childhood memory would be nearly as vivid if I didn't still love the tune though. I guess if Dad didn't already know that I mastered his reel-to-reel machine by the age of 3 - he does now!
Thanks for the memories Papa!
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