I Heart Mix Tapes

as ABN and i were driving this weekend, after we had caught up on our This American Life podcasts, i dug through the glove compartment of my car and found treasure: old mix tapes. at one time, i was the queen of the mix tape...my father once reasoned that a dream job for his only daughter would be one in which i was responsible for making mix tapes and posters. i have made many a mix tape in my day, marking important times in my life (and the lives of others); for important people in my life (and in some cases, for people i wanted to be important in my life...). the mix tapes that i found were a mix (hehehe) of tapes (hehehe) i had made and tapes that had been made for me...as i forced ABN on a journey through my adolescent years, i couldn't help but think about where i had been when these tapes literally rocked my world.

needless to say a number of the tapes (and there were a NUMBER of tapes) were from my camp days. the jackpot of the day was the tape that was made late one night in the summer of '96. it was mostly recorded live from beer sheva (reference? anyone out there?) although songs of great importance were added in after the summer was over and the tape was copied and distributed. the tape has a faded label: FIESTA. i think it had something to do with something we found HILARIOUS at the time, but now, for the life of my i can't remember what. most of the tape is difficult to decipher and the inside jokes are lost on me, but there is a live version of the song we wrote that summer (which i believe is also in a time capsul that is to be opened one day...oh god)...we sure did find ourselves mighty clever (and dare i say, talented?).

we listened to tapes made by people that once played big roles in my life, that now don't. as i sang every word to songs i hadn't heard in over a decade, i found myself reminiscing (mostly in my own head) about the songs and the friendships...hallelujah, queen and the solider, ahava, corey's coming, the dancing nun song (don't ask) - these songs shaped who i am.

there was one summer at camp (this story is very revealing about my camp experience in general) when after the first session, the israeli dance teacher quit...and took all her music with her (i think it was that dramatic...at least that's how i remember it). we had spent the entire first session learning all of these great new dances but for the second session, the last four weeks of the summer, we had no music. two of us, not israeli, not dancers, were left in charge of israeli dancing and left to fend for ourselves on the music front. instead of giving up on the new dances and being stuck with only the basics that we had music for from the summer before, we spent the last weeks of camp israeli dancing to gettin' jiggy with it, happy boys and happy girls, and shoop. unofficially that summer, each israeli dance session on shabbat ended with a chorus of livin' la vida loca (in the shower) but that's really neither here nor there.

eventually ABN had enough of listening to the same Sarah McLachlan song that happened to appear on each mix tape (weird) and we went back to listening to Car Talk. it makes me sad to think that mix tapes are a thing of the past. when i think about 10 years from now, and reflecting back on my life and wondering what i was up to and how i was feeling and who i was feeling it with (that wasn't supposed to be dirty)...i don't think i'll have the same kind of mementos to mark the time so clearly and take me back to particular moments so vividly. that's a little sad.