The telephone lines were burning up, whispered rendezvous planned and money was being collected. All for my fortieth birthday. My wife mentioned to our daughter that I had to sell my old reel to reel tape recorder and was pining for a new cassette recorder but didn't have the money for the one I wanted. Every night I would lay in bed, mooning over the fancy tape recorders in the catalogs along with their fancy prices. I wasn't so foolish to ever consider spending so much money on a hobby like quartet singing. I'd just have to do with old borrowed equipment and Dictaphones found in the trash, unless I won the lottery (I never played) or came into some money.

On the day of my birthday, just before we were to leave for the restaurant, my wife, my daughter and her fiance, my mother and sisters presented me with a single gift wrapped box. Wondering where the rest of the birthday gifts were hiding, I opened it to find a radio/tape recorder of the make I had been drooling over. Not only that, but I instantly recognized it as the very top-or-the-line ultra expensive model! Advertised as incorporating the latest in technology and the no-expense-spared components, the price was equivalent of a good used car. My loved ones had all chipped in to get me my heart's desire and then some.

Now, thirty-five years later, the recordings made by this machine still amaze listeners with its just-like-you-are-there sound, the clarity and power of the speakers and the professional results it attained. It would be ten years until a similar product would hit the markets - popularly known as a boom box. But no boom box ever made could touch this one in quality. Just like the wonderful people that sacrificed to get it for me.

Retired portrait photographer. Love to hear from you.