End of an Era

The news broke today, announcing the end of an era most of us thought ended years ago: Sony has discontinued the Walkman portable cassette player. Apparently, even in our advanced digital age, Sony was able to exploit the rapidly diminishing market of cassette tape users. But according to Fox News, no more:

After more than 30 years, Sony has pulled the plug on its iconic Walkman, the original portable cassette-tape player, the New York Post reported Sunday.

The electronics company made its last shipment of the tape players to the Japanese market earlier this year, and once those are sold off, there will not be any more to come, according to Japanese media reports. …

Launched in 1979, the Walkman became a global hit and a symbol of tech cool, with Sony selling roughly 220 million of the boxy devices.

I still have my Walkman, packed away in a box somewhere. How well do I remember that beloved player, which more than once came to my aid as I pedaled my way 5 miles into a fierce 40mph Dakota headwind between the bowling alley on base and the sleepy town I called home, about which I've written previously. It was the Rocky IV soundtrack, as I recall, plus a number of other tapes I still have shoved in a closet. That Walkman also help pass the time on some long family trips. I used it up until my first year or two in college.

Ah well. The Walkman was my generation's iPod, I suppose. Am I now officially "old"?