I can’t remember when I had my first Walkman, but I do remember playing Whitney Houston’s album ‘Whitney’ over and over again. That was released in 1987, and I was all of 13 at that time.
I loved my Walkman. Loved it. I had a newspaper route and I always had my Walkman on. I felt so cool and so modern listening to music while ‘working’!
Walkmans. They were pretty cool back then, weren’t they? Of course, technology has changed dramatically since then. We’ve had Discmans, iPods and then the smartphone which could do everything (and was about a quarter of the size of that first Walkman).
Kids nowadays grow up with completely different technology. My six year old son is a pro at handling the iPad and now that he can spell and read, he barely needs me anymore. But would he be able to handle old school technology? Like a Walkman?
I came across this video where kids are given a Walkman. Their reactions are hilarious. They have no idea what it is, or how it works. The technology that was so logical and self evident for my generation, is completely foreign to them. It’s a powerful reminder of how much has changed in the 25+ years since I got that first Walkman.
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[YouTube]
Did you ever own a Walkman?
[Image via Go_OffStation via Compfight cc]
Eric Dye says
I remember my first portable cassette players AND my first Sony Walkman. I used-up three of these bad boys before getting my Walkman — which then lasted until the end of my cassette use.
I can only imagine the hours of Carmen, Petra and Micheal Peace that played through that ol’ Walkman…
#goodtimes
Rachel Blom says
Carman, oh yeah. I loved his early work. Sunday’s On The Way is still one of my favorite songs 🙂 And yes, I had portable cassette players too. I can even remember playing games on our ‘home computer’ from cassette where you had to play from a certain teller number to another to load the games. Happy memories! (and lots of patience somehow…)
Eric Dye says
Oh, yeah. That moment when your computer game freezes after waiting 15-minutes for it to load.