HAVE YOU EVER HAD A GREAT YEAR BECAUSE OF A BOOMBOX?
1983 was the year I got my first boombox and it was a great year for me....
In the summer of 1983 I saved every nickel from every odd job I could find. I saved up and got my new Lasonic TRC-920 at the Saugus swap meet in Saugus, California. My old mono box had made many laps around that swap meet with me. But the day I saw the radio booth at the swap meet and saw the BRAND NEW 920 high on the top of the main shelf as the crown jewel, the “Look But Don’t Touch†radio. I knew I had to have it.
I still remember the Asian lady working at the booth (hmmmm, maybe that’s why I find Asian women so hot and married one, they remind me of the woman that sold me my 920.….hmmmmm I wonder) I remember her asking me with a smile….. “Are you going to buy?†I assured her…I WAS A PAYING CUSTOMER and then whipped out my big stack of one dollar bills and multiple rolls of dimes and quarters!
Being a kid, this was the single greatest purchase I had made to date! I made sure that when I showed up to buy that radio, I had every cent down the last penny! To bad I forgot to include money for a set of D cells.
As I ran through the swap meet with my giant cardboard box filled with the things dreams are made of looking for my parents, ready to tell them “We can leave nowâ€. Only to find out that they still had a lot of shopping to do. I remember sitting near the exit, staring at that cardboard box. Wishing I could open it up, put batteries in it and strut the “Meet†with all guns blazing. But I forgot to factor in batteries.
I waited till we got home to open it up. I couldn’t risk contamination from the swap meet or the chance of losing any documentation that may have been in there without reading it first.
For the rest of the summer I managed to somehow have batteries. My tape collection (the same one I have today) was fresh and new and all the tapes had the little felt pieces!
The cassettes: Judas Priest’s “Screaming For Vengeanceâ€, Rush’s “Moving Pictures†and Triumph’s “Allied Forces†were always in my back pocket every single day of the week.
My mom had already taken Iron Maiden’s “Number Of The Beast†away from me three times but I still managed to procure another copy! I still remember her crying.
Van Halen’s “1984†album was still a year away with all it’s god forsaken K-E-Y-B-O-A-R-D-S!
1983 was the year of the “US FESTIVAL†in Southern California and Heavy Metal Sunday broke attendance records for any previous concert in the United States and I was there!
I was getting my groove together. My hair was growing longer (and I had hair!), I was working it out with the ladies and had worked up some strong pick up lines that did not include me getting me slapped!
My car may have still been in pieces in the driveway, but my Lasonic TRC-920 did a hundred thousand miles that year…and the next….and the next….
Yep, 1983 was a good year…a good year indeed!
SO THE QUESTION IS THEN TO YOU….DID YOU HAVE A GOOD YEAR WORTH MENTIONING THAT INCLUDES A BOOMBOX?
1983 was the year I got my first boombox and it was a great year for me....
In the summer of 1983 I saved every nickel from every odd job I could find. I saved up and got my new Lasonic TRC-920 at the Saugus swap meet in Saugus, California. My old mono box had made many laps around that swap meet with me. But the day I saw the radio booth at the swap meet and saw the BRAND NEW 920 high on the top of the main shelf as the crown jewel, the “Look But Don’t Touch†radio. I knew I had to have it.
I still remember the Asian lady working at the booth (hmmmm, maybe that’s why I find Asian women so hot and married one, they remind me of the woman that sold me my 920.….hmmmmm I wonder) I remember her asking me with a smile….. “Are you going to buy?†I assured her…I WAS A PAYING CUSTOMER and then whipped out my big stack of one dollar bills and multiple rolls of dimes and quarters!
Being a kid, this was the single greatest purchase I had made to date! I made sure that when I showed up to buy that radio, I had every cent down the last penny! To bad I forgot to include money for a set of D cells.
As I ran through the swap meet with my giant cardboard box filled with the things dreams are made of looking for my parents, ready to tell them “We can leave nowâ€. Only to find out that they still had a lot of shopping to do. I remember sitting near the exit, staring at that cardboard box. Wishing I could open it up, put batteries in it and strut the “Meet†with all guns blazing. But I forgot to factor in batteries.
I waited till we got home to open it up. I couldn’t risk contamination from the swap meet or the chance of losing any documentation that may have been in there without reading it first.
For the rest of the summer I managed to somehow have batteries. My tape collection (the same one I have today) was fresh and new and all the tapes had the little felt pieces!
The cassettes: Judas Priest’s “Screaming For Vengeanceâ€, Rush’s “Moving Pictures†and Triumph’s “Allied Forces†were always in my back pocket every single day of the week.
My mom had already taken Iron Maiden’s “Number Of The Beast†away from me three times but I still managed to procure another copy! I still remember her crying.
Van Halen’s “1984†album was still a year away with all it’s god forsaken K-E-Y-B-O-A-R-D-S!
1983 was the year of the “US FESTIVAL†in Southern California and Heavy Metal Sunday broke attendance records for any previous concert in the United States and I was there!
I was getting my groove together. My hair was growing longer (and I had hair!), I was working it out with the ladies and had worked up some strong pick up lines that did not include me getting me slapped!
My car may have still been in pieces in the driveway, but my Lasonic TRC-920 did a hundred thousand miles that year…and the next….and the next….
Yep, 1983 was a good year…a good year indeed!
SO THE QUESTION IS THEN TO YOU….DID YOU HAVE A GOOD YEAR WORTH MENTIONING THAT INCLUDES A BOOMBOX?
That was very memorable. Hanging around my local park, walking up and down Yonge St blasting funk, hip-hop, and reggae. That was a good year 
:'-( 
So yeah I would have to say the summer of 84 
I guess from carrying it around so much that one day while I was carrying it the handle broke and the box fell on the concrete 
Well i took it home, and being only 15 years old i glued and taped and tried to screw but it never was the same :annoyed: I believe my parents tossed it sometime later but ov course years later after trying to figure out the name brand (being so odd) I was able to get my hands on 4 of them and piece them back to what is a very nice unit.. ( Ira helped out with one)
