Thursday, July 28, 2016

Greetings from Germany, 1960

I love the audio letters that come across. They always reflect the time and place in which they were recorded, and since new ones simply aren't made anymore, they always capture a very different era in communication.

Here's twenty minutes of tape from a German friend (Roland? - he says his name at about 19:05) to a friend in America (Larry , in Maine), recorded in the year I was born, 1960, specifically, October 14th of that year. It starts and ends with some German music, but aside from those three minutes, the rest of the tape is the sender's message.

This is a lovely little recording, the charms of which I'll leave you to discover. Hearing the speaker's voice, I was reminded of an older German neighbor, who lived a half block away from us, and whose lawn I cut every summer, during my late teens. The speaker struggles with English syntax here and there, but has no problem expressing himself in what is clearly a second language.

Whatever he was saying at the end of side one (just past the ten minute point) is lost, due to the end of the being mangled over the years. The rest of the tape is pretty much pristine.

Enjoy!

Download: Unknown - Audio Letter from Stuttgart, 1960
Play:

1 comment:


  1. Thanks Bob for "The Continuing Adventures of Roland and Larry."

    I know I've mentioned this before, but I often find myself wondering whatever happened to some of the various persons heard in these recordings.

    And, if these same people are still with us in 2016, could they compare and contrast some of the changes between the year they were recorded and our present world. What nuggets of information could they share with us now?

    Anyways, just some random thoughts that come to mind when I hear your recordings. Thanks again for your blog!

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