Walkman in school risk
Posted by Anxiouslycalm12@reddit | GenX | View on Reddit | 39 comments
I remember starting about the 7th grade (1990), we started going to school with walkmans (I never left home without my mix tape). Do you remember the staff telling us "If I catch you with headphones/walkman, you wont get it back for the rest of the year?"
I remember this kid took an english book, hollowed it out to fit his gameboy in it. Of course, english teacher says "he cool english book, lemme see", well he didnt see it until June.
BMisterGenX@reddit
I used to listen to my walkman on the bus my freshman year of highschool (87/88) because the bus played top 40 Michael Jackson Tiffany music I hated
old_namewasnt_best@reddit
Your bus had music? In the 80s? What?
Soundtracklover72@reddit
I’m guessing bus driver with a boom box
BMisterGenX@reddit
No the bus had a radio like most vehicles. Tuned to a top 40 station that played the same Michael Jackson Tiffany stuff over and over again
Soundtracklover72@reddit
Ahh. Gotcha. I’m guessing some bus drivers just didn’t bother with the radio OR I couldn’t hear it from the middle
BMisterGenX@reddit
It was the radio tuned to a top 40 station
tunaman808@reddit
"High school" is two words, champ... no matter what Reddit says.
tunaman808@reddit
Did you guys have that one friend who always seemed to get caught? We were on a field trip in 8th grade once, and after the educational bit we ate lunch in a park.
Afterwards, 5 or 6 of us were sitting on a stone wall, each of us listening to our Walkmen. Since the teacher repeatedly warned us about bringing Walkmen, most of us had ours tucked in to jacket pockets with the headphone wire running up the jacket sleeve.
But my friend Brandon had his in his hand. His Walkman also came with the headphones with the high-vis orange ear pads (like these).
Our teacher walked up and said "dammit, Brandon... I told you NOT to bring those infernal music machines! Come on, hand it over!"
She grabbed it and walked away, while the rest of us started snickering, then flat-out laughing once the teacher was far enough away. The rest of us kept listening to Duran Duran or Iron Maiden that lovely spring day... except poor Brandon!
666ForMySorrow@reddit
I couldn't afford to keep that thing fed with batteries so I didn't bother bringing it places. Kids these days don't know how good they have it with recharging for a couple hours.
Impressive-Safety191@reddit
All the flipping of the batteries just to squeeze just a little more time out… good times
FoolMe5x@reddit
Puuuuuuuurrrrrppplle Raaaaiiiiiiiinnnnnn..
Impressive-Safety191@reddit
I totally heard that at dead battery speed! lol!
Pretty-Biscotti-5256@reddit
As a teacher, I long for the days of this but with phones. Also, when you got in trouble, it mattered and you didn’t do it again. Kids are just built differently now.
Knight_thrasher@reddit
I used to listen to music in my computer class while working on assignments.
AtikGuide@reddit
Had one of the off- brand Walkmans. My dad said not to bring it to school, because it might get stolen.
Serious-Mongoose-387@reddit
sure enough, mine got stolen.
Gold_Structure_668@reddit
I just kept My phones under My flannel collar, inside My Denim, Walkman in inner pocket, or Old School earplug/s under My shirt and behind My ear, under My hair.
Ok_Transition7785@reddit
What phones? You must be an Xennial.
KrofftSurvivor@reddit
'phones... Headphones...
GraphicSarcasm@reddit
Assuming headphones...
Gold_Structure_668@reddit
More like Gen X...
RebelSoul5@reddit
I did this a few times when my team made the playoffs (which they never had until I was in HS) and I’d listen to the game that way.
Technique was: jacket, inside pocket, pull one ear phone off the headphones, slip it with the cord up the sleeve, hold the ear phone in the palm, prop your head up with your arm and cup your ear with your palm, take notes with the other hand to make it look like you were paying attention.
Sleeve had to be loose so you could drop the ear phone back in if the teacher wandered too close.
froction@reddit
What team?
RebelSoul5@reddit
SF Giants. They were hard boiled garbage when I was little but made the playoffs in ‘87.
Anxiouslycalm12@reddit (OP)
We had poetry morning for school one day which i didnt give 2 shits. I pretended i was sick with a hoodie on listening to sports radio sat in the back got away with it
BmanGorilla@reddit
The teacher was never my concern. If my parents found out I’d have a real problem.
I try to keep that tradition alive these days, especially seeing that today’s teachers have been forced to be scared of their own shadow.
DoctorFrick@reddit
The thing to do was to cut apart a pair of headphones and thread one "earmuff" through the sleeve of your sweatshirt up to your palm.
Then you could just put your elbow on the desk, tilt your ear to your palm, and enjoy your music instead of Biology.
Wetdogg72@reddit
I wore a denim jacket and slit a hole in the collar, slid the cords in side my jacket and the speaks into the collars then, as was the style, popped the collars up! I thought it was pretty slick :-) got really good at controlling the volume button without looking. Never got caught! 1980’s baby!! Denim jackets and popped collars..
Ihaveaboot@reddit
This is idiotic. Sorry.
DoctorFrick@reddit
Ah, hell. I'm sorry, Miss Wilkinson. I didn't mean for you to find out this way.
bendingoutward@reddit
Man, that's a hell of a typo. "Ingenious" is like entirely different letters!
BlinkerPhluid@reddit
I did this as well. I used my jacket which I never took off. Even had hidden pockets I sewed in to hold the Walkman.
DoctorFrick@reddit
Yes! Buddy had the hidden pocket too. I thought that was the coolest thing.
somewherein72@reddit
I had a yellow Sony Walkman and got it stolen on a field trip when the high school marching band went to New York. I've always wondered where it got off to, hopefully someone enjoyed it.
endtheme@reddit
I'm skeptical people are getting their $120 gameboy devices confiscated for more than the day. My parents would have raised hell if only because that was quite expensive back then and a teacher isn't just going to keep that indefinitely. My dad would have suggested corporal punishment not stealing my shit
MSB218@reddit
I got my Game Boy confiscated the day after I bought Mortal Kombat for it; I got it back a few months later, but it felt like forever.
Ihaveaboot@reddit
Nope to all of this, sorry.
I had a Walkman that I bought from proceeds of mowing grass and landscaping.
1987 maybe.
potchie626@reddit
That’s how I earned my Discman, which was kept by a teacher for a week. 1989 or 1990 for me.
brendini511@reddit
Graduated in 91 and we were told the same thing. I brought mine to listen to on bus rides for away games and never had a problem.