I was cleaning out the truck, when I came across this gem – a cassette tape labeled “Party – Slow Mix”. I had an instant flashback to New Year’s Eve, 1987.

At the time, I was a Captain in the Army and we were on our second tour in Germany. We lived on the economy in the small town of Rheindurkheim, just outside of Worms. In December of ‘87 we decided to have a New Year’s Eve party that year and started getting ready.

One of my jobs in “party prep” was to make some music tapes. We had started converting our music library to CDs, but also still had albums and cassette tapes. The problem was, if you wanted to mix your music up for a party, you had to make tapes. Making a mixed CD wasn’t yet possible, and no one had even heard of downloading music, or having your own private station on iHeart Radio or Spotify. That was still a decade or two in the future.

I made four ninety-minute cassette tapes of “Party Music”. I tried to keep it at five or six loud/fast songs to one slow song for a mix, with the tapes planned for later in the evening changing the mix to a bit more slow music. Four tapes would get me from 8:00PM to about 2:00AM. Then I decided to make one more tape – the “Party- Slow Mix” tape. By 2:00AM, most folk would be gone, and we could just have some mellow stuff to listen to.

The night of the party came and we had a great time. German friends, local American military friends, out of town friends who were crashing at our house for the night, and Cathy’s sister Bonnie, who was visiting from the States were all there. There was lots of food that everyone contributed and plenty to drink – Bier, Wein, Sekt (German champagne)and homemade Schnapps from a neighbor. There was also plenty of dancing. At one point, someone started a conga line that snaked around the house, out the front door, down the Strasse (street), and finally circled back through our back door. Things went on at a dull roar until sometime well after midnight.

Sure enough, around 1:30 or 2:00AM the party thinned out and the only ones remaining were those spending the night. The night slowed down, and I put on the “Party – Slow Mix” tape and it seemed to fit – nice, mellow, and good in the background. People were mostly just hanging out, sitting around and sipping on this or that. Slowly, folk slipped off to bed, and I think Cath and I retired around 4:00AM.

The next day was a bit rough. Eventually people were waking up and moving around. We cooked a big American breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausage, fried potatoes and toast. The kind of breakfast that has a bit of grease in it to help soak up the previous night’s activities. After that, everyone pitched in and we started cleaning up the house. Someone found a half case of Sekt outside that hadn’t been opened, and someone else suggested mimosas might be in order. The mimosas made the cleaning go a bit quicker, and soon enough we finished the cleaning, but not the mimosas. Those continued for quite some time. In fact those mimosas started a tradition that we ended up having off and on for the next thirty years – our New Year’s Day Hair of the Dog Party.

All of those thoughts flashed through my brain as I looked at the tape. I wondered how well the tape had survived the passage of time – both physically, and aesthetically. Our truck has a tape player, so I decided to find out and popped it in.

Louis Armstrong’s “Summertime” filled the cab, followed by John Lee Hooker’s “Whiskey and Women”, and then The Stones “You can’t always get what you want”. ….this isn’t bad…. Next came “Nights in White Satin”, a couple of Sam Cooke songs, and Madonna’s “Crazy for you”. Hmmm… this stuff is holding up…. Two German songs, a slow version of “99 Luft Balloons” and “Uber Sieben Brucke (Over Seven Bridges) added some local host country flavor, and then came “Take my Breath Away” from Top Gun. I was enjoying the tape quite well, thank you very much.

What happened next is what always eventually happens to cassette tapes. No music and a funny sound. Nooooooo! Yep. The cassette player was eating the tape. I hit the eject button and pulled the tape out. Rutro. I tried to save it, but to no avail.

What’s on the rest of the tape? I don’t know. Part of me wants to try and re-spool the cassette, and part of me says let it go. That was one damn fine party, but you can never go back……