mix tapes

When we were kids, long car trips were regular occurrences. A couple hours to get out the cottage. A couple days to get to get to the Adirondacks.
When we were kids, long car trips had music in the form of Grandpa's mix tapes.

They went something like this:

1. Holiday Road (from the National Lampoon's Vacation soundtrack)
   
2. Holiday Road
   
3. Chariots of Fire
   
4. Chariots of Fire
   
5. End of the Line
   
6. End of the Line
   
7. Gremlin's Theme
   
8. Gremlin's Theme
   

When we were younger, we loved this. We sang along to everything with words - "Holiday ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAD, Holiday ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOad."

"Well it's AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALL Right, ridin' around in the breeze, well it's AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALL right, if you live the life you please."

But as we got older and learned how to make our own mix tapes, we were careful to balance ballads with the stuff that really rocked; allow for a transition from slow to fast; and keep a carefully timed, 3-second lapse between each song to ensure that the AMS worked on the tape deck (just in case we did want to rewind a song and listen to it twice). Never would we waste a precious moment of the allotted 45 minutes per side with the same artist, let alone repeating the same song!

As we got older, the purchase of a vehicle with CD player meant that you could use the back button to repeat a song. The advent of music downloads meant that you had the whole world of music at your fingertips. The repeats and wasted space was a thing of the past!

As we climbed into Grandpa's new Ford Excursion, and saw the CD player, we were overwhelmed with joy. The days of mix tapes have come to an end. Grandpa had made a CD.


Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand ... no.

1. Holiday Road
   
2. Holiday Road
   
3. End of the Line
   
4. End of the Line
   
5. If I Had a Million Dollars
   
6. If I Had a Million Dollars
   
7. Holiday Road
   

We're not giving this man an i-pod.