My Love of Mix Tapes

I miss mix tapes. I miss making them. I miss getting them. I miss deciding that I'm going to make one for someone. And then there's choosing the songs. Every single song had to have a deeper meaning, a specific purpose for putting it on the tape. My Number One Best Friend Katie and I stayed up all night one night in high school making mix tapes. One was bouncy fun, fun, fun and called "Shiny Happy People", and another depressing, suicide-facilitating stuff called....Hmm. Maybe "Here Comes The Flood"? We were going through a Peter Gabriel phase.
I miss mix tapes. I just don't feel CDs are the same. It's something about having to listen to each song carefully, and stopping it at just the right spot, and knowing which songs would fit on to your 90 minute tape. So much more love went into them. I always used to end my mix tapes with "Please, please, please..." by the Smiths. Super short song, always fit no matter how much room was left on the tape.
I miss mix tapes. A friend from high school, Kate Hinote, and I decided to exchange mix tapes one year for Hanukkah. Neither one of us is Jewish, but it seemed like a good plan. Her tape changed my life as it contained three songs by Tori Amos from Little Earthquakes. Nothing like hearing "Silent All These Years" as an angsty 16 year old.
I once made a mix for a guy named Jason. He wasn't anything special to me. We actually barely knew each other. Can't remember why I made the tape for him even. But the next day he held up the tape and told me I was a goddess. A mix tape made me a goddess.
Yeah, I miss mix tapes.