The Cassette Radio

 

If your father had this radio, we are friends. We have a thing in common. We should form a WhatsApp group and have a chat. Or we can grab some coffee at the nearest java house. 

Back in the days having this radio was a vibe of its own. It wasn’t used on random days like plastic cups, it was used on Christmas days and related events. If you come from the lake side you know of D.O Misiani and if your father was a church elder you might have come across John Deus. 

This radio rocked the old music. The memories live along. They are fresh and never fade away. 

The good old days before the internet took over the world. When a family would gather and tell stories because no one had a phone to check reels on tik tok and status updates. Or maybe to check why “the 5th” is trending on twitter. When we used to keep our photos on physical albums and not google photos and email.  

We didn’t have those Christmas deers with horns like tree branches to ride on neither did we have over size jackets with marvin hats for our heads to cover us from the snowy christmas weather. We experienced no snow. We could only have little showers of rain in the morning to welcome baby Jesus. 

We would go to church, mostly a catholic church and later come home to witness Chapatis fry in a hot black pan. A chicken would then be definitely in danger that afternoon. We chose to make peace with our cassette radio. It's all we had, no TV and phones but life was just cool. It’s all an average family would own in 2001. 

Slightly better-of families would have a TV with a protruding back and only one out of ten of them would be functional. The Cassette Radio gave us unmatched music experience. 

Technology advanced, CDs and memory cards were introduced. They rocked the world and kicked poor cassette radios out of markets. We watched all sorts of stuff from Jet Li movies of china to The gods must be crazy of Africa. 

I loved the cassette radio. Though I cheated on it with the DVDs several times because it showed me pictures, I would always come back. The poor cassette radio could not show me pictures but I still had time for it. 

I would always go back. I would sneak when everyone was busy watching their favorite film and play a cassette in the afternoon. 

You would always have a pen or a castomized stick to rewind the cassettes should you want to replay a song you like. 

Technology brought us the Cassette Radio and it’s the same technology that was now dragging it to its death bed. But such is life. Technology always has an upper hand. 

We are left to tell its stories and show the next generation what a device we once had. I love the cassette radio it stores in it some memories I don't want to forget. When I see it's pictures on the wall I remember the bloody good old days!