End of an Era

It seems everything has a shelf life. Everything has its 15 minutes in the sun. Just like a season, it has to pass. It kind of saddens me to write about this, and I'm sorry if it bums you out momentarily, but I feel its only appropriate to give due recognition to my clock radio. My grandma bought it for me in 1986, as a Christmas gift, and has been serving me faithfully ever since. It saddens me because it could be the last thing I own from the greatest decade ever, - the 80's! Actually, I acquired a wife in the 80's, but she would be upset if I compared her to an object. Nonetheless, I've had the radio longer than my wife! So my point is, my beloved, faithful, bedside table, companion may be on its last leg. The radio portion doesn't really work anymore, but it was never good quality sound, even in 1986. Its main function was to wake me up. So this morning, instead of the familiar old buzz, buzz, buzz, alerting me to my senses, I could hear something like static disturbing my last few seconds of REM, like someone searching for a station on the AM band, in the middle of Nebraska's sandhills. I awoke to my beloved radio struggling to get an annoying noise out, to rustle me from sleep. I felt sorry for it, like when your dog gets so old, it can barely walk. You know its time left here on earth is short. I did some math to help bring things into perspective. You have to realize though, the snooze button and on/off switch, have been pushed at least 5200 times. Its hard to pinpoint exactly, because you have to factor in leap years, the mornings I didn't want to get out of bed, and hit the 'snooze' more than once, the times I may have been out of town, and was unfaithful to my radio by using another one. But still, roughly 5200 times! I'm sure my wife is going to read this, and my poor dying clock radio will receive its death knell. I just hope it receives a better parting than say, my Vans, Chuck Taylors, Ocean Pacific shirts, Members Only jacket, etc., etc. I'm pretty sure the Vans and Chuck Taylors have disintegrated and are part of the soil by now. In fact, they were falling apart by the time I was finished wearing them. The Ocean Pacific shirts were probably torn into strips and used to wash cars, wipe up paint spills, or clean the grease off of auto parts in a garage. The Members Only jacket, if its still in existence, is probably being worn by a homeless person. As long as he's experiencing the magic and groovin' the girls, I'm OK with that. But wait! As I sit here writing, it dawns on me that I still own my Coleco head to head football game! It still works like its supposed to. All hope of the greatest decade is not lost! Anyone up for a game? What?! You wold rather play Madden?