My initial fixation with music gadgets started in the mid-80's. I was turning into a "tween" - not a child but definitely not a teenager. It was a frustrating time for me because I had been dropped out of the piano class because my fingers have been infested with stubborn eczema (an allergic skin condition that makes my fingertips dry and flaky - often oozing with blood or just too painful to articulate).
Worse, my dexterous sister's breezed through the program effortlessly. She's studying how to play the guitar by herself. Since she can sing well (she's a crowd favorite in singing contests) and play her own musical instrument, she's "cool." That time, I want to be cool like her. I want to play music and sing along to the music I play. After all, in our class, nobody in school had the talent my sister's got. I assumed that since I have almost the same gene pool as my sister, I must be musically talented too - but having eczema inhibited that dream from being physically possible. So I contented myself with listening to the radio and all the cassette tapes that my cousin from Kuwait sends every month. I love listening to New Wave (Duran Duran, Culture Club, Wham, etc.) and Pop (Madonna, Cindy Lauper, Michael Jackson, etc.). I would save money from my allowance and buy blank tapes to record their songs from the radio. I would write down the lyrics in an old notebook and write stories about it.
Eventually, I was able to use these recordings whenever we have a school presentation - making me the official disc jockey(?) of our class. I know which song will fit the mood of a particular event/scene/moment. My friends loved me for that uncanny ability. I became "cool." The problem with being "cool" is that I have classmates who would ask me for a particular song for this particular event and they haven't heard of it. I would lend them a recording of the song so that they could play it on their bulky home stereos but it's rarely returned. That's frustrating so I started keeping all the song recordings to myself - which is a little lonely when I can't share it with people who will appreciate it. On my 11th birthday, my cousin came home from Kuwait and she had a present for me. It was a Sony Walkman! I was ecstatic! At first, I was scared to use it because it looked expensive in its shiny black casing. It had FM/AM function, recording function, a built in speaker and mic. I can record from any FM/AM program or lecture anywhere, anytime. I stocked up on AA batteries and blank tapes. It had a belt clip which was like having music on the move anywhere. I felt liberated.
That walkman (I'm sorry I can't remember it's exact model code)experienced it's utmost (ab)use in my last two years in grade school. I record lectures when I cannot write on my notebook because of my eczema. I play the recorded music for our mini-dramas in English and Filipino class. I would bring it to school on intramural, school fairs, field demonstrations to relieve my boredom. My friends and I would hang out in the school grounds during recess listening to a radio program or just raving about the newest pop song. I had replaced the headphones a lot of times, it got scratches on its body, it ate a lot of casette tapes, it got wet in the rain, it fell off my waist a lot of times, etc. but my sturdy walkman lives on.When I got to high school, I reluctantly parted ways with my walkman. My cousin's brother borrowed it from me when he went to the province to work. I never got it back. He got married, had kids and relocated to another place. I heard that it's still being used as their bedroom radio, its casette function had conked out. Sometimes, I still remember my old sony walkman.
It witnessed the carefree innocence of my "tween" transition. Whenever I hear a particular song from the 80's, it takes me back in time when I still had my walkman and witnessing milestones in life unfold. I had since graduated from the casette walkman to the CD walkman in college. New generation MP3's from Sony are good. In fact, I'm thinking of buying one from their portable music player NWZ-series that has noise canceling properties. It would be nice to get lost in the music again, just like when I had my casette walkman (with maximum volume), without damage to my ears.
Aside from that, the series has ample storage - for all the music I would ever need and the power needed to play them over and over again. Instead of buying lots of casette tapes/writable CDs, all I have to do is to drag them from my laptop to the MP3 player. I don't need to stock up on AA batteries either - with a charging time of half an hour, you get 2/3rds of your day filled with nonstop music you like. It also retained the FM tuner and recording function that I initally fell for with the casette walkman. Isn't that so(ny) amazing?It definitely gave significance in my life just like the Sony’s World’s First Noise Canceling Portable Music Player: NWZ-S730 Series which I will enjoy in the (very near) future.
