Let’s reminisce about Boom Boxes! Did you have one?
Do you remember how a person would carry it on his shoulder, blasting sound into his own ears and into all those ears around him within a city block?
Or some would set them up and broadcast music loud enough to be heard throughout the campground, a quarter mile up the beach, or a few houses down the block.
Sometimes there would be competing boom box events.
What a relief it was when the Sony Walkman was invented.
I got one as soon as it was available. I would clip it to my belt and play cassette tapes or the radio through earbuds and not bother anyone. Wonderful.
Last week my blog article was about boomers who don’t know how to use a cell phone in public for phone calls.
Well…many of us boomers have another obnoxious phone habit.
And that is using a cell phone like a boom box.
Just this past week, I saw a man my age walking around the track at the gym holding his cell phone listening to a talk show booming out of the phone speaker. And it got worse. After the track, he worked out with the weight machines, with the phone in his shorts pocket, blaring out his show!
I was visiting a senior facility, and a lady was sitting in the library, holding her phone at shoulder level, listening to music. I could hear it across the room. In the library!
In the waiting room at my doctor’s office, a woman was watching a video on her phone, with the sound coming out of the speaker loud enough for me to hear across the room.
I’ve got to stop. I’m getting a headache.
Boomers…please…buy some earbuds.
Can you hear me?
