My memories stretch back even farther - when I was in high school, people did carry their music around, but the only way to do that was with a boom box. Those things consumed batteries by the ton (we're talking C or D cells here - none of this AA or AAA stuff), and they played music out loud. Those who could afford to have one (not me, I'm afraid) would walk around with the thing blaring out their own choice of tunes, proudly identifying with either the disco or the rock crowd (the only two genres that we recognized) and defying anybody to complain about the noise. The cool ones had extra bass boosters and VU Meters. I have a distinct and fond memory of walking around in Mons Belgium (this high school of which I speak was an overseas base school) with 5 or 6 of my head-banging friends clustered around Tim Watson, who's ghetto blaster was generously sharing Black Sabbath with the locals.

I don't remember exactly when I got my first Walkman - it was probably late in my university days. I must have owned a dozen of the things over the years, and they were among my most prized possessions. They were great on flights, except for the need to haul around all those casettes. I later switched to a CD Walkman, which was a lot more efficient in terms of media storage, but was itself much bulkier and less convenient. Now of course I have an MP3 player, but I am a cynical and jaded adult, and incapable of loving anything as much as I once loved my Walkman!