Yesterday I visited a friend who is in the process of emptying her parents' house and she showed us a huge collection of cassette tapes. That brought me back to the days when I used to record songs from the radio or the TV. The sound was crap, but I was so proud of them...
Speaking of Cold War spycraft - imagine attaching a long wire to the radio antenna and walk with it around the room trying to even hear the music Radio Free Europe broadcast every Sunday afternoon... in the end you'd get only a vague idea of what Led Zeppelin sounded like but it was worth it as such music was forbidden in our country.
Oh, I bet that really brought back memories! I can't even imagine what it was like growing up on that side of the Iron Curtain. I can imagine those radio broadcasts were like a glimpse of an alien world. Your memories of that would make for some compelling reading.