Thursday, August 25, 2005

Farewell, Sweet Audio Device

There have been intriguing updates to the recent drama surrounding the unexplained and some say suspicion-raising death of my CD player. Firstly, I had to let it go, and so I put it where all Old Things go: a box in the cupboard. But as I was sifting through the other Old Things relegated to that closet (old show programs, clothes that don't fit, my youthful optimism (THERE it is!), a grandparent or two, some ugly ties, etc) I happened upon a dusty old shoebox I couldn't recall placing there.

"Hello, what's this then?" I muttered to myself. Molly mewed in response, but I could not speak her language.

Brushing aside generations of cobwebs and damp, I opened the box to find some ancient letters bundled up and sealed by some earlier John in my family. They seemed to be from the 1910s or 1920s, but I'm no historian, and I've never even played one on TV. Note the family resemblance:


That's my ancestor there on the right, and what a dapper crop of chaps his chums appear.


I don't know what's going on in this one, but I began to wonder what else Grampa B had stashed in his closet, if you know what I mean. Ah well, I suppose things were different back then. I mean there was probably a war on or something.

I was about to put this stuff back when an old advertisement slipped from a corner of the box. I've reproduced it here, although age has affected it's quality somewhat:


Yes, it seems Gramps was facing the same issues I am. I don't know if he ever did buy his iGramophone.

Perhaps I never will.

4 comments:

Clem said...

Did you know that cats are generally accepted asbeing the only animals - apart from parrots and birds - who attempt human vocalisation? There you go.

Born Dancin' said...

I didn't know they were the only ones, but I do know that they have something like 38 different meows. I've worked out about 5 or 6 from mine (welcome home, I'm hungry, I'm freakin' hungry, I'm boooored, ouch! and give us a pat you old devil).

Mine have also worked out foolproof ways to wake me up and drive me insane (scratch record collection - grrr, and monotonously rustling a plastic bag). These have been proven in my objective clinical trials to be the most annoying sounds in existence.

Born Dancin' said...

"I know"! A cat that can comfort you when you're down! That's sweet.

Clem said...

Kinda. It's more like those grandmas on that ad from 2000 that said "weee knooooow" in response to some bloke shouting out "Steven's in the Olympics!"