INTERESTING AUDIO

Have come across a few interesting audiotapes recently.

First, a dub of a French foreign language instruction record which I surmise was from the early 1960s. A comprehensive selection of French words and phrases. Mention of there being lunch counters in drugstores.

A tape recorded on February 6 and 7, 1998, of an elderly man sending an audio letter to his sister Olga. Seems like she lived in Trenton or at least somewhere in the Quinte area. Mention of the ice storm of 1998. Chatting about life in Costa Rica. Didn't really seem like he liked it down there. Recorded at his house and in the park near his house, featuring the voice of his friend John from Vancouver, as well as background sounds such as cars and a siren, the sound of children playing in an empty fountain and people speaking in Spanish.

Came across a tape dubbed from a compilation record of songs from the sixties. At the end of the first side, a recording off the TV of an excerpt of an episode of "Magnum, P.I." Also featured people talking in the background. Older woman saying, "There so close together it isn't funny." Audio very distorted. Was most likely a small tape recorder shoved up against the TV.

At the end of the second side, clearer but by no means high quality audio of what appeared to be a daytime talk show about interracial adoption with various people giving their opinions (all in the affirmative) and studio audience clapping.

And, last but certainly not least, a tape of wedding speeches from August 20, 1988. The wedding took place in Peterborough and was between Jack Elliott and Carol Myers-Fedoruk, who had been voted French teacher of the year. The tape was recorded for something called "The French Connection." The only French Connection that I could find is the newsletter of the French studies department of the University of Waterloo. The anncr plays the Marsailles, introduces the recording of the speeches and gives closing credits at the end. If this was meant to be a radio show the audio was certainly of poor quality, not something any PD should have let go out over the air. Yet, it almost appears like a tape a reporter would make so he would have notes of the speeches to work from afterwords.

Carol and Jack were both middle-aged, Jack being about 57 at the time, which I know from having found his obituary. Along with her husband, Carol was getting a set of children and a grandchild and Jack was getting a set of parents.