Today’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “tape.” Use it as a noun or a verb. Use it any way you like. Enjoy!

It’s Friday evening at 8:16. Earlier this afternoon, after reading the prompt, I became curious about the history of tape. Seems like it’s a relatively recent invention in the big tapestry of time. Tapestry, by Carol King is one of my favorite albums, by the way. But we will come back to music, if the stream goes that way.

“Scotch” tape was a brand name and a household marvel in the 50s and 60s. It was developed to help make a dividing line between paint colors on cars staring around the 1920s. Before Scotch Tape, there was glue and paste, wrapping things in paper, and string. There was a video I watched not long ago about wrapping presents in cloth – like small blankets or bandanas. Very cool way to save resources and reduce waste.

After Scotch tape became a common household tool, there were tape recorders. Or maybe tape recorders were about the same time or earlier. When my dad was overseas in Vietnam, he sent a recording of himself talking to Mom for her to play on the tape recorder which had two small reels. Later there were 8 track tapes that took the place of vinyl record albums, but not completely. I still have a box of vinyls that held up way better than 8 track tapes. But you could play 8 tracks in your CAR! and that was amazing at the time. When David and I dated in the 70s, he had a case of 8 tracks that he brought with him when we hung out with friends. I’m sure Jethro Tull was one of the tapes. Then there were cassette tapes. Sometimes the tape player would eat the tape. If a whole loop came out without breaking, you could sometimes wind it back in with a pencil and it might still play. Then there were VHS tapes for the TV, another amazing invention at the time – to be able to record a TV show or watch a movie whenever you want was quite a revolution for someone who liked TV.

Oh, remember taping posters on your wall as a teenager? Now, it’s considered tacky, but back then, it was fun.

Tape. So many ways to go with this. Duct tape is pretty versatile. I had a coworker years ago who said he (or someone else) needed duct tape on their mouth to keep from saying something inappropriate in a staff meeting.

I have a picture of duct tape on windows somewhere.

Speaking of windows, I have to be careful next time I fly with David in a small plane to not look out the side windows much. Motion sickness has always been a problem for me. Dramamine has usually helped a lot in big commercial planes and on boats, so I figured two Dramamine would work for my first private plane trip with my husband David as pilot. I didn’t quite throw up but came very close.

The first half of the 30-minute flight was interesting as I made myself think of something other than my fear of heights and that I might die. It was fascinating to look down at the Atlantic Ocean and intracoastal waterway. I took a bunch of pictures which probably didn’t help. After turning around to go back to the airport, I started feeling worse and worse nausea to the point of feeling miserable for the second half of the flight.

Before our next flight, I’m going to research additional motion sickness remedies, including pressure points on top of medication, and I’ll try to minimize looking down over the side…. next time.

David did an excellent job as pilot. I’m proud of him for working hard to accomplish his flying goals. There are not many people I would trust to fly me in such a small plane. I hope next time, I’ll be able to enjoy the flight more.

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