Retro A Go-Go

Man, people sure do love the past. Whether it's themed restaurants, vintage clothing or golden oldies music, some folks just can't seem to get enough of yesteryear. For instance, I just happened to visit a place today that will blow your mind!

Check this out...

There's a store at the mall that sells what they call "compact discs". Here's how they work; what you do is you buy this cellophane-wrapped container that's about as big as three or four iPods (depending on which model you have). You open it up and take out a round disc that's got an oily, refracted rainbow-looking design on it and put it in some sort of machine to play music! Apparently, that's the way they did it back in the old timey days. Isn't that a hoot? Each "CD" holds between approximately 12 to 18 songs. If you want to listen to more than that, or if you wanted to hear from a different artist or genre, you would have to take the disc out and insert a different one. So people would have to carry their players and untold numbers of these discs around with them wherever they went, just to listen to music while they churned butter or sold war bonds. How nuts is that?!?

I thought there would be lots of senior citizens in there, remembering the "good ol' days", shopping for Benny Goodman or Duke Ellington or Pearl Jam tunes, but there were actually quite a few people in their 20s or even younger. Kooky kids, being ironically hip I guess.

I asked someone what possible appeal could these relics hold for non-cave dwellers? She told me, "It's nice to actually own something solid, something tangible that you can hold in your hand and not just something ethereal like a file that just lives on your computer." Whatever, grandma! You can keep your quaint, archaic notions like CDs and polio and all-white presidential campaigns. What's next? A place that sells gas for $3 a gallon?