An Ode to the Cassette Tape

Sep 19

Written By Carla Monroy

Day 8 of 100 Poems: On the lost art of the mixtape, radio recording, and performing surgery with Scotch tape.

Day 8 Prompt: Write an ode to an antiquated device.

Ode to the Cassette Tape

It was before the MP3. Before the iPod.
Even before the CD.
I’m dating myself, aren’t I?

They were a testament to patience.
Waiting, waiting, waiting….
for the exact moment my favorite
song would play on the radio
so I could hit record on the boom box.

Hoping to catch it right at the beginning – sometimes settling for starting the recording mid-song. Some song is better than no song at all. That was the logic. Every once in a while, the stereo box would eat up the tape, like it was hungry.

Pulling the tape out carefully so it wouldn’t snap – but sometimes it would snap. That’s when I’d prepare to perform surgery. Steadying my hand to cut the film evenly and attempt to adjoin both sides with a thin slice of tape.

Stitching it back together.
If the surgery was successful,
I would save the audio,
getting away with just a minor warp.

A Pause and a Whirlwind

I have been absent from writing to you. It’s been a whirlwind. Crossing multiple time zones and then immediately hitting the ground running with work. I did find respite in the hills of Berkeley, California. Where I’m writing to you from. It’s morning and it’s gloomy. There is a wind blowing through the greenery outside. It’s a crisp 61 degrees – and I am here for it! Here for all of it.

It is so hard not to be in “vacation” mode and then the struggle with consistency continues to be a challenge. There are so many reasons not to write. I’m not in my normal environment, I’m tired, I don’t feel inspired, I want it to be good. Most importantly I don’t want to waste your time. Barring all of that, I persist. Knowing full well that not every single poem is going to be a banger.

Technology in the Prompts

It’s interesting that just by chance the last two prompt pulls have been centered around technology. Thinking about cassettes reminded me of walking to Norwalk Square with my mom and the neighbor who had kids my age and lived a few doors down. My mom was a homemaker in my early days. She stayed home when I was girl and during the summer we’d take walks to Norwalk Square. She didn’t know how to drive and the only car we did have my dad would used to get to and from work, but we’d still walk a few miles to the local commercial square that housed a collection of drug and convenience stores, fashion shops, an ice cream parlor and later a discount theater.

Sometimes we’d cross the street and hit Norwalk Records in the late 80’s/early 90’s. The record store housed a wide array of records and cassettes and music paraphernalia. I wasn’t always allowed to get anything, but I would look around at the dozens of tapes I wished I could take home and listen to. I got my first tape there. It was Michael Jackson’s Thriller. My experience with this record shop also likely fueled my love of the movie Empire Records.

From Obsolete Devices to AI

It is funny to think about antiquated devices and to take a guess at what devices might become obsolete in the future. In a more extreme thought could humans ever become antiquated for AI. Now that would be our ultimate demise. It’s a bizarre thought, but an even more outlandish storyline. Could I come up with the idea for an artificial intelligence thriller!? Maybe that is something to ponder.