Do you remember life before the internet?

Was once a device you had to carry. My favorite device before the interwebs was my Walkman. What’s a Walkman you ask? It either had a tape or cd in it. What is a tape, a very old method of recording music from your boombox. Tapes had a thread that would very often get tangled in your Walkman or boombox. You’d use a pencil to gently wind the thread with music on it back or inside the tape. Sometimes this would work, other times not.

I had a collection of tapes that would sometimes last a few months other times years. If you had a favorite track you’d have to forward or rewind your tape to the song. If you heard a song on the radio you’d have to be quick & press record on your boombox.

This would mean you recorded the song off the radio. If you had a crush you’d have to record from your tape/cassette that was blank from one with songs on it. This was a tedious, long way of showing someone you liked them.

Ear buds where on a string connected to your Walkman. They were cheap & the sound was grainy & you’d barely make out the lyrics or the instruments. Always on a string that’d get tangled in absolutely everything. It was archaic & hard to enjoy music.

Your phone was connected to the wall, & it didn’t display who was calling you so you had to answer when it rang.

Life before the interwebs involved paper & notes & you could not instantly get the news unless your parents were rich & you had CNN. I miss that simpler time just not tapes I had but how fun it was to get mail in the mailbox not on my phone.