Is this being taped?

My four year old is at that point
where he wants to listen to stuff.
Not that he never listened before,
but he's always singing, always wanting music on or
to listen to a recorded story while he plays.
And he's learned how to operate
the players so he can put these on for himself now.
So it's always something....only not such a variety
now as there was in the past when my older two were
in this stage of audio enchantment.
I remember Lovely K and Big E going through this phase.
And what did I do about it when they were in that phase?
I bought lots and lots of tapes.
(No wonder I found so many good ones for good prices,
it's like buying dinosaur hats. Who needs them now?)

We have a wealth of material
for the listening ear
ON TAPE.
If only Sweet T could drive....because the van is the
only place I have a working cassette player.
The kids have those CD/tape combos in their rooms
(and I have one in the kitchen) but what is
the first thing that goes on those?
After you play one third of one side of a tape,
the tape player portion of the ridiculous thing
no longer works.
I was looking at various sites online and I cannot find
where you can buy cassette players any more.
Please show me if you know the source---
and I'm not talking about somebody who
is calling it "vintage" and wanting $300 for a
tape player that ought to cost $19.95.

I thought I'd find that child proof one that Fisher Price
used to make. Not anymore. It's for CDs now.
I guess the cassette tape is like the eight track tape
was when I was a kid. But I have all these great stories
on tape and great kids' songs on tape that I know would
be just the thing for Sweet T right now
...and no tape player.

I find this aggravating.

I was thinking about some of the tapes this morning.
Ernie Gets Lost
was a big favorite
--and while not a literary masterpiece,
it was a good story about how important it is
to stay with your adult while shopping.

We have lots of Elisabeth Elliott on tape, including the
stories she read for children. My kids loved these
and they were nice and mellow
(some might say boring)
like you want a recorded story to be at bedtime.
And those tapes are the reason Lovely K will usually refer
to her as "our friend, Elisabeth Elliott." If you ever
heard her radio program, you know that she always said
at the beginning, "This is your friend, Elisabeth Elliott."
Well those story tapes are recordings of her radio program
so several times throughout the tape she would
do the intro again and tell you that she was your friend.
We heard her on the radio one day
(this has been a while back now)
while we were driving down the road. It took Lovely K
a minute to recognize the voice and then she said,
" Listen Big E!
It's our friend, Elisabeth Elliott!"

Somebody taped off (onto a cassette tape
from a record--you know, that black vinyl circular thing)
this recording of Bible stories that Lloyd Dobbler
had as a child. It was one of those overly-dramatic
things that sucks children right in. Big E and Lovely K
used to listen to that tape a lot at the old house.
It was Big E's favorite. This was when he
became enchanted with the story of Cain and Able.
It was on that tape. That overly-dramatic tape.
Some asked Big E what his favorite Bible story was
and he said, "Cain and Able!" with such enthusiasm.
And I got the strange look
--the kind of look you give a parent whose child
is enchanted with the first murder in history.
I think it was the way they told it, those overly dramatic
people who made that recording. There was one line
I would hear Big E repeat to himself when he was playing.
He would say it in this very deep,
thundering (as much as a four year old can
make his voice "thundering"), Biblical voice:
And Cain smote his brother Able.
We won fish at the fair that year. Lovely K won one
and Big E won one. Big E named his fish Cain and
convinced his sister to name her fish Able.
One more we found Able floating.
No joke.
Cain lived while many fish who came after him did not.
I'm just saying...If you have two fish that you
want to keep.....don't name one of them Cain.