V2: a pictorial ode to obsolescence

The black kids in my high school (1975/76ish) had way bigger models. You had to have one if you wanted to be cool.

I wasn't cool.

Jon Cusack might beg to differ.

Speaking of boomboxes and coolness in high school in the mid 1970's, Dr. S, I had a similar high school experience in the mid-1950's.  In 1957, the students at our high school were offered a chance to win Prizes(!) by writing original essays extolling the virtues of the United States Coast Guard, and detailing the high points of its history.  I worked hard on my essay, having been told that the prizes included really cool things like clock radios, something I didn't have, and really, really wanted.

Sadly for me, my essay won First Place, and the First Place Prize was this:  a 5 day trip down the Ohio River on a real U.S. Coast Guard vessel.

Put yourself in my place.  I was a girl.  A high school freshman.  I was clearly shy, and less socially mature than my peers.  Everybody could see that, including me.  It was also true, though not so widely known, that I was quite subject to moderate, sometimes severe, motion sickness.

Therefore, since at that at this point I had absolutely no interest in the Coast Guard, as well as zero interest in spending 5 days feeling moderately nauseated, in the company of the unknown number of presumably well-disciplined and courteous young uniformed men who'd be manning the vessel, I politely declined the offer.  I received no prize at all.

Then came the cruelist blow of all:  my best friend's essay won Her the Second Place Prize -- a brand new, state of the art, Marvelous-looking Clock Radio, which, if memory serves, looked exactly like this:

I'm still pretty bitter about the whole thing.

...and that bitterness has sustained you all these years! Keep up the good work!

A five day drinking binge on a boat sounds cool.

I suggest a big plate of lard.

Thanks so much for the 3 responses to my little "essay!"  

1) How lovely to learn that I'm not the only one who sees "bitterness" as a valuable coping skill, in all stages of life.  

2)  Well, sure, nowadays, I agree absolutely! -- I can't think of anything cooler than a 5 day drinking binge on a boat! 

3)  Many thanks for reminding me of the curative powers of lard -- I can't believe I'd forgotten about it so quickly.  Also, it's helpful to be offered a suggestion about the dosage of lard that would be most effective.  "A big plate."  That sounds about right. 

Was it possible to trade your trip for her radio?

P.S. I still have my dad's 8 track tape stereo, weight 150 lbs!  

Chess_is-my_Heaven: is that a Telefunken? My family had one just like it in the early 60s. If you slid open the left side door, the inside was mirrored and had a glass shelf for your martini shaker and glasses.

I can't imagine The Four Tops singing If I Were a Carpenter, but it makes me think about carpentry. If you go to a Hobby Lobby or some other knick-knack shop where they sell wooden objects (little boxes or decorative shelving or whatnot) and look at the wooden items closely, you don't see any dovetail joints--or any joints at all. Everything is just butt ends stapled together and glued.

e.g.

I really can't figure out what that mask is for. 3d glasses?

That's part of his superhero costume.

More to the point, why such a big book on how to pick up trashy women?!?

If you can't bag a skank, you just aren't trying.

Not sure I'd have chosen the phrase "bag a skank" to describe that particular activity, but I do agree with your astute observation.  A "How-To-Do-It" book wouldn't be that big unless the title were "How to Seduce a Supermodel."

For readers seeking to persuade a Strumpet to engage in physical intimacy, it would be more like a pamphlet:  "How To Pick Up a Promiscuous Woman."  And the entire pamphlet would consist of two instructions.  "1) Ask her what she's drinking," and "2) Buy her another one of those."

Well...

there´s an explanation...

I think that this is the real book that refined man is reading:

You just can't trust the internet these days.

I don´t need a book about how to sleep, I have a master degree on that 

12 hours nap, are not uncommon 

Not me.  I'm an insomniac, so that's a book I'd buy!  Anybody know where I can get the cool sleep mask?

Yes, I remember, insomniacs are those that steal things from stores even when they have money, right?