Old Becomes New

A college friend posted a link on his Facebook status the other day to the following video. It's a group from Slovenia singing Toto's "Africa" completely a capella. It starts with a "thunderstorm".



I thought it was so cool that I had Bruce listen, and then all three kids, too. Seriously, I got tears in my eyes. I can't tell you how many times I listened to that song so many years ago. Good times!

I was pretty sure I had an old Toto cassette with that song on it. Yes, cassette.

When I told Clay about it, he actually said, "What's a cassette?"

I moved my imaginary walker over to the entertainment center and worried about my bad hip as I got down to search through several old cassettes.

Ah-ha! There it was. My Toto cassette. Along with cassettes from Chicago, Journey, INXS, Howard Jones, The Cars, Spandau Ballet and Paula Abdul (before AI fame).

And then I found my old Walkman. Good night, that thing has to be 20 years old. At least.

Clay was fascinated. Even more so after getting me some new AA batteries and discovering the thing still worked.

I put in the Toto cassette and let him hear the original "Africa". Then I let him hear Chicago's "Hard to Say I'm Sorry" but fast forwarded through its "Stay the Night".

We moved from the 80s music to the 90s with M.C. Hammer's "Can't Touch This".

Bruce pulled up the video on YouTube so Clay could see that crazy dance thing M.C. Hammer did that looks like a woman freaking out after she sees a mouse or roach on the floor. Bruce called it The Typewriter. Works for me.

I was struck that even though the dancers' clothing was tight and some of the moves were questionable, it's nothing like the junk that's in videos these days. For that matter, it was tame compared to some of today's commercials during daytime viewing.

After tuning ye olde Walkman to the local Christian radio station, I gave it to Clay.

If he treats it like gold, he MIGHT get an MP3 player. Someday.

We tucked the kids in bed and went back downstairs. When we go up to bed, we always peep in at the kids again.

Clay fell asleep like this:



Just like his mom. A long time ago. Before I got bifocals and dentures.