While in the car, Justin took notice of something on the dash and asked me about it. “Daddy, what’s that for?” he asked while pointing to the gear shift.

 

“It’s a gear shift.” I responded. “No. Behind it.” he clarified.

 

“Oh, that’s the tape deck.” I answered.

 

There was a moment of silence and then he asked, “What’s a tape deck?” (Clearly, I have failed as a GenXDaddy if my son doesn’t know what a tape deck is!)

 

“Well, Justin. Music used to come on cassette tapes and you could play them in the car. You could also record on them. Mommy and I used to make mix tapes for each other when we were younger.” I thought that would answer his question. I was wrong. It just led to more questions:

 

Him: “What’s a mix tape?”

Me: “It’s like a playlist.”

Him: “With a lot of music?”

Me: “Not really. Maybe 8 or 10 songs. A few songs on one side and a few on the other side.”

Him: “It had sides?”

Me: “Yes, an A side and a B side.”

Him: “And you played it in the car?”

Me: “Yes, you put the cassette in here,” I said while I pointing to the slot for tapes, “and then in plays whatever is on the tapes.”

 

(Pause)

 

Him: “Can you put a tape in now? I want to hear it.”

 

And here is where I ran into a problem, I don’t think I have my old tapes. I think I transferred everything to my iPod. So, I had nothing to show him.

 

Me: “Sorry buddy. I don’t have any tapes to show you how this works.” (Honestly, it doesn’t work anymore. It stopped working a long time ago.)

 

At that point in the conversation, I jumped out of the car and ran into a store to pick something up. When I came back, this is what I found:

Before… 

…After! (Yea, that’s my iPod!)

Me: “Justin! What did you do?”

Him: “I wanted to hear it play music!”

Oy!