by: John Sciacca
I am imminently facing a BIG birthday. As in a number that no longer starts with a 3. This has got me looking back on my life. And as I peer down that long, dusty trail, what I see is a lifetime that has been closely intertwined with technology changes and advances. I invite you on my journey, and perhaps share your own memories in the comments section.
My first electronics’ related memory goes back to when I was 7. The Atari 2600 came out. Life as I knew it would never be the same.
At age 9, I did a day’s worth of chores for my grandmother – raking leaves, cleaning the pool, vacuuming, etc. – to earn enough money to walk down to a local record store to purchase my first record: a 45 of Gary Numan’s “Cars.” I think the pay rate equated to about $.25 an hour.
My parents bought me a GE clock radio for 5th grade graduation. The kind with the glowing, blood red numbers straight from the deepest levels of Dante’s Inferno and the oh-so-sweet faux wood grain cabinet. That radio served me well for over 20 years.
The following year my grandmother got me a color TV, a sweet 13-inch Sharp model. Many, and I do mean MANY hours were spent playing Atari 2600 on this baby.
In 7th grade, after MUCH pestering, my parents finally relented and bought me a Sony Walkman. I also purchased my first cassette, Styx’s Paradise Theater.
Around the same time, I worked an entire summer washing dishes in my aunt’s Italian restaurant in Coos Bay, Oregon. (I think the pay rate had skyrocketed to $1 an hour.) I saved all my money and bought a Sony Betamax. Then I bought my first Beta movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Sophomore year in high school I bought a Magnavox portable CD player. I also bought a pair of Sony Studio Monitor headphones and my first CD, Wing’s “Greatest Hits.” Years later, I sent this player and a bunch of my favorite CDs to the woman who would become my wife.
Around this time, my interest turned to car audio. I took at job at a now defunct big-box retailer called The Goodguys! and I purchased a truly sick car stereo system. I believe I had the first 10-disc CD changer at my high school. (A high school where the class president drove a Maserati I might add.)
In my early 20s I discovered Laser Disc and Home Theater at a friend’s house. We watched Speed and I was hooked. Sounds coming from behind me? What kind of Black Magic is this and how do I get it? My first “real” HiFi purchase was a giant Definitive Technology subwoofer. Then I obtained a Carver LD player from someone who was upgrading. Pure A/V bliss! I purchased a surround system and then had the LD player “modded” to output the AC-3 (Dolby Digital) RF stream. Then I pitched Dolby Digital Laser Disc reviews to a magazine, my first break into journalism!
In 1997 DVD came out and I was there. I hedged my bet by buying a Pioneer combo LD-DVD player. First DVD purchase: Jerry Maguire.
Since then, I’ve kept steady with technology, though it seems to get harder and more expensive to do so. I replaced a 35-inch Mits tube with a 61-inch DLP. Got an 80 Gig Video iPod. (First iTunes purchase: Talking Heads double-album “The Name of this Band is Talking Heads.”) Bought a house and installed a housewide audio system. Got a PS3 which serves as my Blu-ray player. (First Blu-ray disc: Pixar’s Cars.) And last year I replaced my entire HT system with some state of the art stuff including a Pioneer Elite Plasma and an anamorphic lens equipped video projector.
For now, I’m about as up-to-date as I can be. But, after reading all the news coming out of CES this year, looks like I need to start preparing for the next 40 years and the move to 3D…
