Wait -- you say -- inferior? Yes, they are. I'm only stating facts -- it does not mean that I think 8-tracks need to be abhorred or destroyed. They fit a niche, just like Civil War recreationists, KISS tribute bands, or architectural restorationists. There are things from our past which we tossed aside because there was something new, and not because we couldn't get any use out of it. My second contact with 8-tracks was to tear apart a pristine 8-track player that my parents picked up at a garage sale. I had discounted 8-tracks as having no use whatsoever, so I ended up destroying a peice of audio history.

Encounter #3 was a miss that should have occurred. I worked in theatre, and we were trying to get a long loop of sea-sound effects that would run through the entire play. We had an 8-track recorder, which we used only for the radio, I understood that 8-tracks would loop back on themselves, but I didn't put 2 and 2 together to put the technology to work. In the end, I cobbled together a tape cassette which needed to be flipped during the show. If only I had looked closer at the technology at hand, I could have come to a solution to a problem that 8-tracks were the best resolution for.

Now, we are brought to the current day. In the spring of 1999, my grandmother found a large box of 8-tracks in her basement. No, they didn't belong to any of my aunts or uncles, and my parents never had 8-tracks, so the box sat in the basement. I like to frequest thriftshops, and while looking around I discovered a quadrophonic 8-track system with phono inputs, quad outputs (for recording your quad 8-tracks onto quad cassettes!), a joystick front/rear/l/r fader, and radio. It was so kitchy and interesting that I had to get it. But -- I had no 8-tracks. Remembering the box in my grandma's basement, I asked her for it and she let me take it home. I played some, sorted through them, broke some, and destroyed some. Luckily, none were worth much, but there was one Jethro Tull tape that I was very interested in that was destroyed before I got it (tape split down the middle). The player I had gotten had some quirks, and there was no way for me to hook up my VCR or reel-to-reel to it, so it went in a closet in favor of a more modern amplifier.

A few months passed, and I puchased a 1977 Plymouth Volare. You gasp -- did the Volare come with an 8-track player in it? Unfortunately no, but shortly thereafter I found a great under dash 8-track and cassette player at a garage sale, which I have yet to install, but will get much use out of it, I am sure. About a week after finding that, I ran across an unused stereo system with an 8-track RECORDER in it. Of course, I had to buy that, in order to make Nine Inch Nails and Mortal Kombat 8-tracks. I even jerry-rigged my computer to play through it, so feasibly I could convert MP3s off the internet into 8-track format!

But -- my quest is not finished. Like all good 8-track afficianados, I have the bug, and cannot pass up a good deal on 8-track paraphrenalia. So, between my desire for archaic computers and 8-tracks, the thrift shop people know me well.