Mr. Nel's Timeless Tech

*Friday, January 10, 2025

“Hey, Kev! You saw my wireless charger?!”

“No, Wanda. Check your bag again.”

“OH! FOUND IT… …THANKS, BAE.”

“You’re Welcome. Be careful out there.”

“I’ll call you when I get there… …LOVE YOU!”

           And with that last “LOVE YOU”, there starts another day in the life of Kevin and Wanda Romain’s Media-Mogul Adventures! You see, Kevin and Wanda are media entrepreneurs of sports and culture events in New Orleans. You’ll see them packing media gear into bags and crates, ready to cover events around the city. They’ve got high-powered cameras, smartphones, ring lights, and lavalier mics on hand for archiving events and posting them to social-media sites. A lot of modern tech they own…

           Then there’s ME –  ARCA (rhymes with “parka”), a “vintage” RCA Personal Portable Recorder and Cassette Player, with a Built-in and External Microphone System (like it reads on the cassette deck).  Yes, she gave me a name, and I kinda’ like it! My “manufacturing birth year” is somewhere in the early to mid 80s, so I’m in my 40s (compared to Wanda’s age of 57).  I belonged to Wanda’s father, Nelson aka “Mr. Nel”. He was a fan of vintage tech, especially for music tech. He still had a transistor radio from the 1970s…still played with crisp-clean sound. He kept things like that around. “Still a good piece of tech…simple to use, holds great stories. Let me know if you ever need it,” he told her. 

He said all that the week before Thanksgiving 2024. What happened on December 1^st – 11 days later – changed everything.

           He died that night – succumbed to the serious injuries he sustained when he was struck by a car the night before. He was 78-years-old – two months away from celebrating his 79^th birthday, which falls on Super Bowl Sunday (which is in New Orleans!). He had mobility issues – had trouble climbing stairs and walking fast, so he used a rolling walker (or whatever that thing was called) to get around. According to the police report, he “just stepped out” in front of a turning car at a busy intersection near his Treme’ home.  The driver stopped to give a statement – but that’s all Wanda knows. Her son Justin knows the full report, but he won’t share those details with her. Truth be told, it’s eating her up inside – but she won’t let anyone know it…not even Kevin, her hubby of 18 years.

And that’s where I come in…

           As Wanda and her siblings (a younger sister and brother) had to “take care of Dad’s final business matters”, they went to his home to look for all those “important papers”. Sis and Bro were rummaging through mail and documents – Wanda sat on the sofa looking through the album collection he kept. She knew what was important to her. Anyway – as they were about to leave, she saw me sitting alone on a nightstand in another room. I’m not much to look at (small, gray, dusty, no plug-in adapter, weak batteries) – but I felt Wanda’s spirit lift a little when she saw me. (Yes, I have “eyes” – of sorts.) She wiped the dust off me, then stashed me in her backpack. Honestly, I’m not sure what would have happened to me if Wanda didn’t take me with her… …but I’m glad I get to live another day. I’m pretty sure she wants that for her father (to live another day)… …but she’s wise enough to not question matters too smart for her. She’s glad that her father has a healthy body to go along with his wisecracking wit (the one thing of his she DIDN’T get). 

Right now, I’m sitting on a table in her office – in a corner near her stuffed-animal collection.  I hope she finds a new adapter and batteries for me. I’d like to be “employed” again…you know, do the job that Mr. Nel kept me doing for years.  I want her to record stories about history and culture like Black Mardi Gras traditions…Youth Sports…Social Justice… … …and that stage play about her historic high school, the one she’s been toiling and obsessing over since 2020. I don’t want to be just a “table prop”…I want to be a PLAYER in the great stories from her brilliant mind and soul. Even with the Audio-Recorder app on her “smart”-phone…and the Voice Recorder function on her laptop – I want to be USEFUL.  Like I was in her teenage-times of the 1980s, when she would tape herself practicing public-speaking by reading newspaper articles into a cassette recorder. And the mid-90s (her almost 30s) when she’d make mixtapes of songs from her radio. And one of the last times she used a cassette recorder – in 2005, to capture the life story of a Tuskegee Airman from New Orleans who became a respected businessman and historian.  She lost her tapes in Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath…tapes she’d love to have back. The memories they carried…the memories my tech ancestors witnessed and recorded. I want a legacy like that…being the forefather of new generations of recording technology. 

 Well, I guess she’ll go shopping for that adapter and those batteries later on…. 

***

*Saturday, January 11, 2025*

           Wanda is sitting at her computer desk right now – typing the first draft of a piece for a story competition advertised by a literary publication. The prompt she chose was “Write a story from the POV of a now-defunct piece of technology.” 

She’s thinking about all the technology that’s come-and-gone in her lifetime.  Then she looks at me. She smiles sadly, wonders how Mr. Nel is doing in his new home in the Big Blue Sky. She’s hoping that he’s having fun with his sisters and mother…watching over Skylar, Wanda’s new granddaughter…and that he’s proud of her.  

Then she types a verse to introduce the story she wants to enter – and hopes will win – for the competition:

“Does something lose its

 Effectiveness when its

 Fancier, updated version

 Unseats the original in the

 New consumer market?

 Can something considered

 Throwback make a comeback?”

***

Hey, Wanda, ARCA talking…your father would be proud of you!

(For this story -- Wanda gifted me with the power of Personification…especially the ability to hear her words and read her mind. And WOW, does she have a lot on her mind!)