My Mother's Voice

Yesterday I did something I've been wanting to do for a very long time -- I transcribed a cassette tape that my mother recorded in March 1994, at my request, on the little portable tape recorder you see here.

I'd listened to it several times in the past, but the very slow rate of my transcription yesterday allowed me to sink into the cadences of my mother's speech, which was influenced by being born and raised in Virginia. The recording quality is very poor, but it still was a great pleasure to hear her voice and some of her childhood memories. The second side of the cassette was blank, and how I wish she'd filled that too!

Cassette tapes and portable players like this one are antiquated now, but I still enjoy the simplicity they afford. I've never taken to iPods or, more recently, putting "my music" onto my iPad or iPhone, or listening to Internet radio.

I still love music CDs, so tidy in their "jewel" cases, with all the information that the liner notes provide right to hand, and listen to them in the car. I long for a Bose Wave CD player -- preferably an older one, with knobs, instead of the newer ones, which have a remote control that I'd be sure to lose.

As you can tell, I'm not an eager or early adopter of new technology -- and I'm glad that I held on to that old tape recorder and the cassette tape!

(The photo of my mother [1919-1997] is a studio portrait dated 1985 -- one of my favorite pictures of her.)

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