“oh, i have that on a tape in ruby,” i said talking about some song i can’t remember now.
“a tape,” sister #2 asked.
“yeah, i made a mix tape,” i said.
“you what,” ray asked pounding the bar and turning his head towards me.
“i made a mix tape for ruby. jess says getting into my truck is like being in a 14-year-old girl’s room, tapes and papers and lip gloss all over the place.”
“you still make mix tapes,” sister #2 asked.
“can you still buy blank tapes,” ray asked.
i went on to explain to them in a clear, matter of fact way that yes, i still make mix tapes because ruby doesn’t have a CD player and sometimes i get sick of the radio. of course since sister #2 and ray have no appreciation for their roots, they just ridiculed me endlessly with tears streaming down their eyes from laughter.
“so do you just sit in front of the stereo swearing when you forget to hit pause and start the next song,” ray asked.
“no,” i said.
“you aren’t taping songs off the radio,” my sister shouted incredulously.
“no, i burn the cd first and then record it.”
this sent them into even more howls of laughter.
“so when you cut off a song, do you just start it over on the next side,” ray asked.
“no, i just start with a new song. but whenever i listen to the tape i get mad that the song didn’t finish.”
“how many of these tapes do you have?”
“i dunno three or four.”
“forget this book crap,” sister #2 said. “you need to put a car stereo on your wishlist.”
“they’re like a hundred bucks,” ray said.
“shut up, you’re getting a mix tape for christmas, i’m gonna color on the cover and everything!”
“i couldn’t even listen to it, wait, maybe i still have a boombox at my parents’ house.”
they called me mix tape for the rest of the night and howled with laughter at my retroness.
Dear Mizz Jodi,
Would you be a dear, and please delete the word “incredulously” from your mix tape story? For me, it destroys what is a tiny moment of overall written perfection.
(Also, adverbs are the devil! I said angrily. They never really add anything to dialogue attribution, I said informingly. Sometime if you have time – and if you haven’t read it yet, if you have you should reread it because it’s wonderful – you should read Stephen King’s “On Writing” memoir. Because it discusses the evils of adverbs at length.
I said… um… bibliophillically? Maybe 😉
When I first got my Ivory Destrier, it still had the original 1989 Honda tape deck in it. Yea verily, I too burned CDs and then recorded them — how else am I going to record my mp3s to tape? Or record songs from different CDs? I had the whole record-from-a-zillion-CDs thing down when I was in high school, though. I’d spend hours at my dad’s labyrinthine stereo setup, recording mix tapes.
Naturally, I asked for (and got) a Kenwood CD player installed in the Destrier for Christmas. But I still have the tape deck.
Will you get mad if I call you “mix tape?”
Jodi, leave the adverbs. It’s much better sounding than “…’you aren’t taping songs off the radio,’ my sister shouted with an incredulous tone rising in her voice.” It sounds like a LITERAL translation from Japanese that way. (All that is missing is “this I assure you, but not as strongly as I would assure a superior or teacher, but as strongly as I would assure a brother, sister or coworker.”)
This site is YOURS, not a portfolio of your work. As a personal reflection page, I can say most reassuringly that you have ever right to completely turn a phrase to your heart’s desire.
i grinned wickedly as i added the adverb to that phrase last night. i even though better of it, but trudged on doggedly, leaving the adverb to sit innocently next to said.
booya!
i have read stephen king’s “On Writing” and i know about the evil of adverbs. but sometimes i cannot resist, she said coyly.
I just remember the great animated short from “The Electric Company” where the main charater ran in to Dracula. He sang that he left, “Immediately… Immediately… Immediate, LY!”
Also, I refuse to believe that “Father, Son and Lolly” would allow their adverb business to go asunder to easily. And Schoolhouse Rocks! trumps Stephen King handily.