30 Days of Writing - Behind the Wheel

I was just in the momvan and bent down to change the CD when I started to think about how I still prefer owning the physical CD to buying a digital copy. Now, momvan is old enough that I could still play a cassette tape in her, but too old to have a MP3 port. I generally listen to CD's in the car and have no problem playing the same ones for long stretches of time. But, what is it about that little silver disc that makes me feel the need to possess it rather than just download the songs?

This could be traced back to my formative years when I loved reading the liner notes on my older brother and sister's albums. Whether the album was Elton John or Cheech and Chong, I loved looking at the pictures, drawings, and reading all of the words and lyrics. I can remember the first album that I ever purchased for myself. I was in 6th or 7th grade and I had gone to visit my big sister at college. We did all of the cool college things like visit the bookstore and go to a bar for an evening. We also went to a little record shop. I searched around and finally settled on buying Aerosmith's "Toys in the Attic."

That particular purchase has always puzzled me. I was far too naive to understand the double entendre of  the song "Big Ten Inch" and was probably lured in by the title more than anything. It was exciting to stand among the rows of albums and search through them for one to buy. From then on, I got to know many local record shops.

In high school, a friend took me to a very small shop that had a rather creepy owner. He scared me when he approached and asked "So, what kind of music do you like? I have some in the back room." What he had in the back room were hundreds of bootleg albums, mostly from live performances. It was with great pride one day when I introduced my big brother to this joint and bought him a "rare live recording" from the back room as a birthday gift.

Albums are long gone for me. I gave all that I once had to my brother when I no longer had a turntable in the house. We now have a large collection of CD's that is alphabetized and cataloged by my anal-retentive husband. So, why do I have to possess the physical disc? There are very few that have "liner notes" any longer. When I purchase a disc, I immediately put it on my computer and transfer it to my iPod where it resides in digital form. There is no logical reason except that I can actually hold the CD in my hands and remember to play it, which is saying a lot as I get older.

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This 30 Days of Writing Challenge is brought to you courtesy of Nicky and Mike. They managed to convince a bunch of us to play along. If you want to read more cheesy posts, check out the ramblings of the crazy gang listed on the Linky thing at the latest post at We Work for Cheese.