Before ipod...There Was Boombox

I just recently jumped on the whole portable mp3 bandwagon when I picked up a cheap little player on Ebay and I gotta say, it's pretty cool. You can put it in your pocket, buy one of those things that you can use to attach your player to your wrist or arm, or just toss it on the table while you're rockin' out. It may be portable but as far as any type of "coolness" is concerned...it falls way short.

Back in the days of my youth we also had portable ways to play our favorite music. Unlike the mp3 player where you store all your fave tunes in this little player though, back in the day you had to carry your music around with you separately. But it was worth it and added a little groove to the average swagger. Of course the portable player I'm talking about is a boombox and the music? Piles and piles of cassette tapes.

While I had cassette players and even a small cassette player with AM/FM radio before, it wasn't until 1979 that I got a boombox - a big (but not the biggest) Sanyo box with cassette, AM/FM radio, external mics and a handle that went from one end all the way to the other. What I liked best about mine was that it was mainly black with hints of silver where all of my friends boxes were pretty much all silver. Now all I needed to do was dub some records onto tape and maybe even hit up the Post Exchange for some new tapes. But before I hit the streets crankin' my tunes, there was one accessory I so desperately wanted to add to my new boombox. A little decor, if you will.

A foxtail to hang from the handle!

So with foxtail hooked in place, I grabbed my boombox on one end of the handle, so it would tilt slightly towards the ground giving me that "I could care less" air of coolness, and sauntered down the stairs of our apartment stairwell and onto the sidewalk of the American housing area I lived in. I was blasting Ted Nugent's "Weekend Warriors" when I heard an unfamiliar voice calmly say "Cool, the Nuge." It was this new long-haired kid, Pat Barron, who had moved to the neighborhood while I was gone on holiday with my folks. Pat was a tall long-haired skinny guy who wore blue denim from head to foot. Years later when I first saw pictures of Metallica's Cliff Burton I often thought how much Burton reminded me of Pat. But anyway...

Here was this new kid hanging out on the front stoop with MY friends when my new rockin' boombox and I should have easily been the hit of the day. Pat wasn't carrying a cool set of tunes. But he was definitely cool. In the end we all headed to the park and talked about whatever cool stuff 13-15 year olds talk about with the soundtrack for our youth provided, although briefly, by me and my rockin' jukebox!

Years later Pat and a couple of other friends including my buddy Wayne Smith who lived right across the hall from me in Germany, also ended up in the area. Pat in Evans and Wayne in Hephzibah. Both of those guys joined the military. Wayne is still in the service I believe while the last I heard Pat traded in his Marine stripes for coast guard ones.

I may not have that boombox anymore...but I got the last laugh...

...I still got the hair! (for now)