The cassette recorder changed my life!

I got a cassette tape-recorder 4 my birthday in 1971 & immediately Bgan recording my faverite songs off the radio.
But I'd bn listening long enuf by then that summa my faves were mayB a little odd: The Royal Guardsmen's "Snoopy's Christmas," English Congregation's "Softly Whispering I Love You," Jimmy Castor Bunch's "Troglodyte," the Wackers' "I Hardly Know Her Name," Johnathon King's "A Tall Order for a Short Guy," Billy Lee Riley's "I've Got a Thing About You, Baby," Manfred Mann's Earth Band's "Living Without You," El Chicano's joyous version of Van Morrison's "Brown-Eyed Girl," Van's "Jackie Wilson Said (I'm in Heaven When You Smile)," Mal's "Mighty Mighty and Roly Poly," Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's "Some of Shelley's Blues" & "House at Pooh Corner," Kracker's "Because of You (The Sun Don't Set)," Chris Hodge's "We're On Our Way," Joni Mitchell's hilarious blowout "Raised on Robbery"....
The early '70s were a pretty amazing time, musically. Radio playlists Cmd A LOT more open than they would B later or R now, & there was always some great new music 2 discover -- especially when U didn't really know NEthing. I Cmd 2 lean toward the really pop-ish or the really strange. But, like every 12-yr-old, I was cer10 that I knew EVERYTHING. The world was an Xciting, inviting place, w/ plenty 2 do & learn. I knew there was a whole world of adventure waiting 4 me, & I learned about it partly thru what was on the radio.
I wasn't the only 1. My friends Barry Anderson, Paul Fritts, Gene Goodell, Mike Harvey, Buddy Pitts, Fred & Ernie Paul were all listening. We were all music fans.
I remember shooting hoops at Fred & Ernie's house while the Doobie Bros' "Listen to the Music" played on the radio. Bginning-writer Barry was the only other Partridge Family fan I ever met (I'm sure he'd deny it 2day). Mike Harvey was the only Carpenters fan I ever met. Gene Goodell was the 1st guy I ever met who was in2 Led Zeppelin -- 2 scary 4 me way back then, B4 I heard "Stairway to Heaven," & even that was ... a little Out There. I remember playing football w/ all these guys & R buddy Mike Fisher while Tacoma's KTAC played the Moody Blues' "Ride My See-Saw," followed by Iron Butterfly's "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" after 10 pm....
My next-door neighbor, slightly-older Mike Page was in2 even scarier stuff: Grand Funk & Black Sabbath & Ghod knows what else, tho he did toss me some great singles like Bullet's "White Lies, Blue Eyes" & Adam Wind's "Nobody's Boogie."
& all these friends somehow 4gave me when I bot the 1st Osmonds album (shock! horror!). & I'm sure they'd all laff 2 discover that I finally obtained the 1st 3 long-coveted Partridge Family albums atta garage sale 15 yrs later....
& while we loved the music, we were all stumbling R way outta gradeschool & in2 junior-highschool, still telling stupid gradeschool jokes, still mostly scared 2 death of girls ("We've gotta square-dance with THEM?! Hold their sweaty fish-like hands? Euuuuu!" ... Not realizing they were thinking the same thing about us....).
Considering the buncha geeks I hung around w/ back then, I thot at the time that we were a pretty talented bunch. None of us were Xactly dummies. Barry was the only writer I knew who I thot mighta had a wilder, darker imagination than me. Buddy was sharp, Mike Fisher & Paul both came across as avg guys, but neither of 'em were dummies. We were all in the top 10 percent of R class. Mike Harvey was kinda a doofus socially (I'm sure he'd agree), but he knew what was goin on. Gene was the most advanced socially, the bravest w/ girls. & Fred & Ernie coulda bn a standup-comedy team.
Fred & Ernie were Xcellent improvisational comedians. In addition 2 the latest hits, each morning KTAC would air some kinda 5-min comedy feature -- "The Tooth Fairy," or "The Adventures of Chicken Man" -- & 1nce I'd got10 comfterble w/ the new cassette-recorder, the 3 of us tried our own little comedies, completely unscripted off-the-cuff satires of late-'60s TV shows like STAR TREK or THE MOD SQUAD, then both Bing shown in TV reruns every aft. I never knew where stuff was going next, but Fred & Ernie pulled it 2gether. Hilarious stuff! I hope they Nded-up out in Hollywood writing comedies or something....
I'm sure there musta bn other comedies, tho all I can remember was 1 journey in2 the nearby woods, narrating the wonders we saw w/ each step as we went.... U could hear me narrating seriously, while in the background Fred & Ernie made raucous "Awk-awk, eek-eek, tooky-tooky" bird noises & then collapsed in wheezing laffter....
...& don't I wish I still had the original tapes of all this foolishness, if only 4 blackmail purposes.... Fleetwood Mac's Lindsey Buckingham started out making jungle noises onna cassette tape recorder, ya know....
Course I only had these friends 4 a coupla yrs B4 I moved away 2 somewhere the radio reception wasn't as good.... Then I moved 2 Idaho, where from my basement bedroom I could pick-up radio signals from all over the West. But it took a couple more yrs B4 I came back out of the basement socially.
I probly spent 1/2 of highschool in my room, under the headphones, recording everything off the radio that sounded good, eventually piling-up around 100 cassettes full of music, finally going out & buying albums, the resta the time writing & mostly Bing bored.
But eventually I re-emerged -- 4 friends like Jeff Mann & Don Vincent, & Newspaper class, & a highschool sweetheart named Allison....