Interests of "The Child"

This week I'm talking about interests and where they led me.

Sports were a big thing in school to the point they were social connectors so any child who wanted to get on like me needed to get engaged with them.

Hand to eye co-ordination was never me strong thing cutting across to varying extents my abilities in playing school sports but the thing was it never stopped me trying or just playing as a purely social thing.

That meant I was prepared to pick up a tennis racket and ball to play with another child if they felt like a game even though I'm not good at it rather than getting into funk or screaming to anyone who would listen. 

Another interest of mine was music, specifically recorded music.

When I was younger how you listened, the cultivation of a time to listen intently to it, appreciating took hold not that I didn't have music on as a 'background' but I'd find time to do just that and maybe a quiet room to sit in too.

Also I was interested in how that sound was reproduced caring that although I may of been ten years old, I was getting the best I could get from my recordings be they tapes or as was common then stereo  records. 

I was fortunate Dad knew a fair bit about electronics and especially audio engineering so even with our modest income I had at that age my very own stereo record player with a built in radio cos he built it for me from modules and made a case from wood. That was better sounding compared to what my friends had.

As I got more into my teens money permitting I bought magazines about what they called "High Fidelity" which when remove a lot of technical terms and snobbery from it is really more about getting the best sound and they had articles about improving what you heard as well as reviews of equipment.

I was reading them cover to cover from the age of eight!

Around the same time I got from grown up friends handed down equipment that while good wasn't as good as what they could now afford was better than what I had so at one point I had a tubed Rogers Cadet II amplifier with it's control unit, a Panasonic stereo cassette deck for recording and playing cassette tapes on , a Goldring turntable and cartridge and a pair of hand made speakers using units originally fitted to Rolls Royce upmarket cars!

Today I own an all Rotel stereo separate system and a Sony MiniDisc recorder with a portable player for listening while away or on the move.