There’s a little backstory to her. 

About two months ago, Katie and I stopped at a local resale shop to donate some old clothes and books and the like. We’ve decided to stop donating to Goodwill and Salvation Army both because they’re overloaded with donations that they wind up trashing and because of the corporation-ness of them. Instead, we find local shelters or church-run shops to donate to. 

I digress.

While in the store getting a receipt for the donations, I saw this Walkman in the front register display case. They were charging $10. I asked if they knew how well it worked and they said they didn’t even know if it worked, let alone how well. I decided I would drop back in at some point with a tape, batteries, and a headset to try it out. 

I didn’t get back for about two or three weeks and, when I did, I confirmed it did not work at all. Not even just a broken belt, the motor wasn’t even turning. 

As I was leaving, the woman running the place asked if I wanted to take it with me for free because, otherwise, she’d just throw it out. I said sure.

I brought it home because, well, she's pretty. And solid.

That's a metal wraparound clip on the right holding it shut and it also had all the rubber seals intact and the hand strap was there.

Only thing missing was the belt clip. Well, and functionality.

So it sat around for a bit before I bothered to look up a maintenance manual online and took it apart. I moved some parts around inside without doing anything notable to fix or further damage it. 

However, when I re-seated everything, a wire that was exposed in the battery compartment got pushed back where it likely should have been. That's when it dawned on me that maybe that wire was keeping the battery from making contact with the lead. So, playing this hunch, I put the batteries back in and tried again.

It worked almost perfectly! The motor, the belt, everything. Even the AM/FM tuner works. 

Okay, the one catch is that the headphone jack isn't perfect. With the headphone plug inserted all the way, I get sound in one half of the headphones. I tried it with two different pairs. If I back the plug out a hair, I get perfect stereo sound. So I may have to try cleaning it up a bit in there. Or the plug might have to be replaced in which case I need to learn the fine art of soldering. 

But, seriously, how cool is this? 

Oh, and her inaugural cassettes? Letters to Cleo's Aurora Gory Alice and King Missile's Happy Hour.

Honestly, I can't remember which came first, although I suspect L2C.

Welcome to the family! 

FTR, Nathan is trying to convince me to give him one. Grrrrr...