JenniferS
When you're the leader, you don't have to follow.
Precursor to cassette tapes. Came out in the mid 60’s, but most widely used in the 70’s. My mother had dozens of them, all of them disco.
-
Welcome to the WDWMAGIC.COM Forums!
Please take a look around, and feel free to sign up and join the community.
Where in the World Isn't Bob Saget?
- Thread starter PUSH
- Start date
Disney Crazed
Active Member
They are interesting looking. I have heard of cassette tapes but never had one before.Precursor to cassette tapes. Came out in the mid 60’s, but most widely used in the 70’s. My mother had dozens of them, all of them disco.
View attachment 474617
View attachment 474618
Eric1955
Well-Known Member
Precursor to cassette tapes. Came out in the mid 60’s, but most widely used in the 70’s. My mother had dozens of them, all of them disco.
View attachment 474617
View attachment 474618
I love disco! But I’m sure everyone already knew that. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go fire up the Betamax and watch Saturday Night Fever.
JenniferS
When you're the leader, you don't have to follow.
Excuse me, I can’t hear you over the roaring in my ears from the hot flashes.I think this is the first time I've ever truly felt old.
InnKpr
Well-Known Member
You youngin's who missed out on the splendor of cassette tapes truly are neglected. Those were magical times indeed. Life seemed so much simpler back then. If you wanted to listen to your favorite song, artist, or album, you simply found the corresponding cassette with the music of your choice, inserted into your cassette player with the side you wanted to listen to printed outwards, otherwise you would be listening to the other side, which may not have the song(s) you were seeking. You could use the song listings printed on either the cassette itself, or the case in which it came in to determine which side you wanted to play. Also you wanted to be sure to not jam the cassette into the player too hard, or incorrectly. If so, the result could be a spaghetti-like festival of tape unraveling into your machine, which you must get unstuck and wound back into the cassette nice & smooth to avoid another mishap. Pencils or other skinny tools could sometimes do the trick in getting all the scrambled tape back in evenly. Sometimes. If part of the tape happened to snap altogether, it could result in the cassette being useless from then on.
So, with the cassette properly inserted in your player, and the door/lid shut, it is now time to enjoy some music. In many cases, you could simply hit the Play button and listen to the album in full. Once one side finished, you would then remove the cassette from the player, turn it to the other side, and play the musical offerings of side B.
However, in many cases, you didn't want to listen to the album in full, but rather a few favorites of your choice. That is when a game of simple geometry and guessing comes into play. Whereas our parents had turntables/ record players, they could easily use the tiny lines on the record to judge which song was which, and move the needle to their preferred location. Not with cassettes. With cassettes, you use the rewind or fast-forward button and guess & check, judging by the thickness of each side of tape wheels as to how far along you are. For example:
Let's say you want to listen to your favorite song, which is listed as song #4 out of 8 songs on side A of the cassette. 4 is half of 8, so if both the left and right wheels of tape are even in size, you know you are getting close to that song. So you rewind/fast forward until the tape looks even on both circles. Stop, hit play, see how close you've gotten based on what song is playing, and either decide it's close enough to just listen until it gets to the one that you want, or realize you've gone too far, and must rewind. You do this process over and over until you reach the song or section of the cassette that you want to listen to.
And you kids think you have it good today with your "type in name of song you want and click play" methods. Bah! You don't know the simplicity you were missing out on.
In next week's episode of Life Was So Much Simpler Back When: How to blow into your Nintendo game cartridges to get them to work properly.
So, with the cassette properly inserted in your player, and the door/lid shut, it is now time to enjoy some music. In many cases, you could simply hit the Play button and listen to the album in full. Once one side finished, you would then remove the cassette from the player, turn it to the other side, and play the musical offerings of side B.
However, in many cases, you didn't want to listen to the album in full, but rather a few favorites of your choice. That is when a game of simple geometry and guessing comes into play. Whereas our parents had turntables/ record players, they could easily use the tiny lines on the record to judge which song was which, and move the needle to their preferred location. Not with cassettes. With cassettes, you use the rewind or fast-forward button and guess & check, judging by the thickness of each side of tape wheels as to how far along you are. For example:
Let's say you want to listen to your favorite song, which is listed as song #4 out of 8 songs on side A of the cassette. 4 is half of 8, so if both the left and right wheels of tape are even in size, you know you are getting close to that song. So you rewind/fast forward until the tape looks even on both circles. Stop, hit play, see how close you've gotten based on what song is playing, and either decide it's close enough to just listen until it gets to the one that you want, or realize you've gone too far, and must rewind. You do this process over and over until you reach the song or section of the cassette that you want to listen to.
And you kids think you have it good today with your "type in name of song you want and click play" methods. Bah! You don't know the simplicity you were missing out on.
In next week's episode of Life Was So Much Simpler Back When: How to blow into your Nintendo game cartridges to get them to work properly.
Disney Crazed
Active Member
I feel bad now that I made you feel old.I think this is the first time I've ever truly felt old.
DryerLintFan
Premium Member
Don't
When adult's say this, were just joking. No need to feel bad. Trust me, we feel old every time our knees crack or we groan getting up or our kids ask us to sit on the floor
NYwdwfan
Well-Known Member
You forgot to mention how the constant rewinding and fast forwarding would often snap the tape. And ohhhh the joys of losing a tape in the stereo of a super hot car.
I STILL blow on DVD/computer/gaming disks (and then into the machine) when they don’t play. And it still works.
Goofyernmost
Well-Known Member
Brace yourself, from here on out, it becomes a common occurrence. You are just getting older, some of us are deep into the last third of it all. Everything including afternoon and evening thunder showers make us feel old.I think this is the first time I've ever truly felt old.
Goofyernmost
Well-Known Member
What to go back even further. How about "78" records. One song on a disc the size of a dinner plate, Then "33 1/3" long playing discs along with "45's" for single tunes (and those little plastic inserts). Transistor radio's (AM only) that sounded like someone was inside them with a steel grinder. Along that time the introduction of Stereo followed by color TV and then Movie laser discs, 8 tracks, cassettes and CD's. Now all my automobile music collection is on a chip the size of a postage stamp or a flash drive stick. As a kid, I used to sit at the kitchen table with my coloring book and listen to Superman, The Green Hornet, The Lone Ranger and others on the radio. We didn't own a TV at the time and even if you did you could ruin your eyesight trying to make out what was happening on that 12 inch screen that was mostly snow. And the ever popular rabbit ear antenna's with aluminum foil on the ends to try and improve the picture quality.
Edit: This chip is smaller then the picture ----------------------------------------------^
I have loaded 17 albums and two large mixed "tapes"
I have used only 12% of it's available capacity. Ain't technology great?
Last edited:
NYwdwfan
Well-Known Member
I can answer that last one for you...
JenniferS
When you're the leader, you don't have to follow.
At some point maybe. I have to go to the pharmacy.
Disney Crazed
Active Member
My mom and dad don't even buy DVD's anymore either. They just get them right off of the Amazon Prime account and we have our movies there on the T.V. just a click away to watch. We can also watch them on our phones if we want to. We also have also the Disney+ stuff on the T.V. and our phones.
InnKpr
Well-Known Member
This is true wizardry of the ancients; an art which sadly, many today do not appreciate.
Disney Crazed
Active Member
Happy National Doughnut Day. Mom was nice enuff to get some for us. 
Goofyernmost
Well-Known Member
Wait... did you just call her an ancient? You got a death wish or what?
