Did I ever tell you about my life of crime?
Alright, it really wasn't a life of crime. I did it once.
[swoosh] I'm like 12 years old, right.
I was... it's the 7th grade. I'm with my friend Tom.
And his mom. And we were sort of hanging out and at this
time I had just started smoking cigarettes and I had a pack of
cigarettes in my pocket. You know, sort of in the liner of my jacket.
And we were at a store called Woolworth's back in the day.
We met this kid that we knew from school and he said, "Hey Tommy,
do me a favor, would you?" I said, "What? What do you want?" He goes,
"Just take this for me. You know, here's my hat.
It's an 8-track tape. Just put it in your hat and put it in your pocket
and then I'll see you outside the store." I was like, "Dude,
I don't know. I don't know if I really want to do this." He was like, "Come on. It will help me out."
I was like, "Yeah, but I don't even have an 8-track machine." He's like,
"Well, you know. Just come on. It'll be cool."
So, again, I'm trying to be like the cool kids and trying to
do things because I'm the blind guy, right, so
at this age in junior high school I'm doing
a lot of things to try and fit in and try to be accepted.
When you're 12 it's really difficult.
When you're 12 and different - holy mackerel.
So I did it. I took this kid's hat and shoved this
8 track tape in my big jacket pocket. And then it's time to go
and we walk down the steps of the store. I'll never forget this as long
as I live. All of the sudden there's some sort of footsteps
behind us and the security guard goes,
"Ma'am, your son stole one of my tapes."
And I went, "Uh oh."
And he's sort of checking me out.
He's feeling my pockets and stuff. And I'm going, "Oh my god, don't find
the cigarettes. I can't get caught with cigarettes."
It's like I had drugs in my pocket or something like that.
I was so scared. But he found this tape and stuff
and he gave me a little bit of a lecture. He's like, "Listen, I don't want you
to coming here into my store doing that kind of thing." I was like, "No, I'm sorry.
I was doing it for somebody else." "Yeah, that's what they all say,
kid. I understand." And I was shaking so bad
I was so afraid. Because my dad, oh my god,
my parents would have killed me if they ever found out about this
story. And thank goodness they never did find out.
My friend's mom was so cool. She was just like,
"You know, you shouldn't be doing that kind of thing. That's terrible. You're stealing from
people. It's no good." And I went, "Yeah, yeah, I know. I know."
She was very cool about it but she never told my parents.
Not a word. But that was my one foray into criminal
activity. You know, for a blind person to steal is very
difficult because for one, you don't know if anybody is watching.
That's the big thing. And now there's camera everywhere
so you can't steal. Don't steal. It's bad.
Now, if you don't know what an 8-track tape is, I've actually got one.
This isn't the one I stole. This is like the
latest technology. This is amazing. This one is Abby Road
from The Beatles. It's a good album.
And it's divided into four parts. Right, there's four
tracks, four programs I guess you call them.
And this was how they were going to bring music into the car.
This was the thing. This was before they started putting music on cassette tapes.
A lot of times a song might fade out in the middle. It would
change track and then start up again. It was really
bizarre. It was a strange little format. But pretty
popular for a while. See, listen, you can
[plastic rattles] That's the tape moving around inside.
So, now if you wanted to put it in the machine
you put it like this and let's just pretend I'm the 8-track player, right.
And you just push it in like that. And then see, right back here
is where you can see what you're listening to because it's says
Beatles back there and stuff. And I guess up here is all the album cover
and the tracks and all that kind of thing.
But man, you know in beautiful
hissy stereo. [laughs]
For some reason, Ben has a ton of these things.
You know what else is cool too? The reel-to-reel player that you may see
in the back ground of some of these videos, there's actually an 8-track
tape player on the side of it. Alright, so here's one.
See this here is Frank Sinatra's "Greatest Hits Vol. 1"
from 1968.
Wow. Look at this.
This is back from 1972. This is
Simon and Garfunkel's "Greatest Hits". And you know what I think this
has on it actually --- I'll bet you it does.
I'll but the version of "Cecilia" on this is in mono. Which is very
difficult to find. You can't find a mono version of this.
I get this the right way for you. Here we go. Look at this, huh?
Janis Joplin "Pearl". She actually died
right after she made this. Maybe even during.
They even had these weird compilations, you know the stuff
you find in the record store, right? Look, "Music from Motion Pictures"
everybody. What is this? "Hits from the Motion Pictures". This is a great one.
It's not even the original recording. These are these Cheshire Strings.
[laughs] You know what else is funny about these too?
These were always a dollar or two more than the LP.
They sound horrible but they were more expensive.
Here, I've got another one for you. This is probably one of their most popular
albums to be sure. This is "Full Circle" from The Doors
everybody. Was this the album they did after Jim Morrison died?
It might be.
Oh, this is another one of their classics I think.
Another Doors album. And this one, again,
has to be without Jim Morrison. His picture's not even on here.
How do you know that, Tommy? Ben told me. Okay?
Here's another Beatles one.
This is "Hey Jude" from the fellas. But see, this is what
I really remember about these things the most is these two sort of
holes right here. If I just turn it this way for you,
you can see and your finger sort of fit right in there.
I was talking about these earlier.
Would you believe he actually has prerecorded
music on open reel tape --- on reel-to-reel tape. Look at this.
There it is. This is the Lovin' Spoonful.
But look, let me show you inside. Check this out.
I can't believe people bought these. Oh, and look at the little tiny
hole in the center. Wow wee.
This is cool, man. Well, I'll tell you what.
You know, since Ben isn't really watching. He's putting the tapes away
and stuff so why don't I just stick this one right here in my jacket
and I'll just put this over my arm like this here. Like this. Like this.
And out we go... with a nice
new reel-to-reel tape. And remember kids,
crime does not to pay. Don't take stuff.
It's bad. I did it for you. [laughs]
[music plays] BEN: I love how it's barely concealed.
TOMMY: I know. It's true. [laughs]
Well, you know what. This is probably
what it was like in the store because I'm not too smart, so...
It was probably stickin out of my pocket.