When I moved to my current house, I planned to hook up my ancient cassette player to a stereo system in my library. So I got my ancient cassettes out of storage and brought them to the new place. It took a couple of stages (ordering bookshelves, getting the bookshelves, waiting for them to fix the adjustable shelf in the center bookshelf) over a few months. In that last phase it looked like this:
You're reading that right. I packed that box of cassettes on 3 January 2005, and put a sticker on it when I moved in February 2008 to confirm that the contents hadn't changed.
Over the July 4th weekend, I finally organized the cassettes, getting to this point:
Much improved. And in order. So, naturally, I played the one marked "Samples," dated 4 June 1988, and realized I had no idea how to make a mix tape at that age.
Now, I've always had eclectic musical tastes, but apparently it took me 6 or 7 tapes to decide that a segue from Monteverdi's "Cantate Domino" (ca. 1620) to Lennon's "Because" (ca. 1969) might sound a bit jarring to most listeners, including future me. Still, I used to play all those tapes in my old Mazda while driving all over the country, so listening to them again put me right back in college.
My old Mazda, June 1990, somewhere near Peekskill, N.Y. The first year I had her (around when I took this photo) I had driven about 24,000 km.