Before cassettes and before 8-tracks for that matter, there was reel to reel. A primitive device by today’s standards. A simple device that even kids like me and my sister could operate. Recording was done on tape that spun around reels. The right wheel took up the tape as it was played or recorded. The left reel had the recorded tape or tape you were looking to record onto. The left was the supply side and the right was the receiving side. The reels would spin because they were mounted or locked into pegs that turned clockwise or counterclockwise. To get the pegs to spin you hit play; the pegs would spin with the right side receiving and the left side giving or supplying. The tape ran through a head that read what was recorded on the tape. Recording was done the same way except another button called “record” was tapped. When the record button was tapped the tape reels would and you would take the microphone and record whatever it was you wanted to record.

I don’t know where our old portable reel to reel is. If found the recordings would be that of kids playing. Me saying, “I don’t know how to groove.” Or me belching over my sister strumming the guitar. we had a lot of fun with the reel to reel now vanished.

I did get my hands on a jaguar model reel to reel. Simple to operate and clean. In fact, the batteries in it were from the early 1970s or maybe 1960s. No Corrosion. For all that history, I put the thing at $30 and cut the price with a 50% sale.

Some time in the early 1970s or therabouts, we got the polaroid land camera, the camera that can take a picture and in a minute develop the photo so you can see it right then and there. My dad would operate it. You had to take the picture with a special film. Once the picture was taken you ripped it out of the camera and shook it. Then there was about a minute of developing. We were so anxious to see the photo. At the instant the photo was ready you spite the special film into two halves and on one side you’d see your photo in the last stages of development. It first looked like a negative and then turned into a photo, color I believe. We took it to an amusement park like Marineland or the los angeles zoo. I forget. I remember we used it at home a time or two. a great idea and some great commercials on tv about with paul anka singing, “good morning yesterday …”