Tempus fugit........and we thought we were cutting edged cool kids at the time, lips curled in a sneer at our parents' incomprehension of the wonders of technology.
Try explaining a vinyl LP to a modern kid, (indeed, try explaining a CD to a modern kid...)........Actually, here's another: Try explaining the difference between 'mono' and 'stereo' audio output to a modern kid.
Sigh. I remember standing, with my brother, (young teenagers, both of us) worshipfully reverent, in an electronics store, marvelling at the outsize speakers (black, naturally) with which more modern stereo turntables had begun to be equipped.
After a coordinated campaign of reasoned logic, pleading, and yearning persuasion on our part, - we were becoming the sort of musically obsessed intellectual teenagers that anyone from that era will readily recognise - our father duly embarked on a serious programme of research of his own, prowling and trawling around the electronics stores, asking questions, demanding answers and comparing specifications. At the time, of course, we took it entirely for granted that he would compare brands and specifications and do the necessary legwork and homework to ensure the purchase of an excellent stereo set. Now, I know it for what it was: An act of love.
In the end, for Christmas that year (we are talking mid 70s), a wonderful stereo set made its appearance chateau nous. Our respective savings accounts had also been raided (the old 'let's have a [named specified sum] subsidy towards Santa' suggestion), with the unimpeachable argument that a contribution from us would give us a sense of ownership of said stereo, and ensure that we minded it carefully (we did).
