“Cosette”

Chad was on a “normal” schedule yesterday, Kevin worked at my dad’s and thanks to a surge in interest in projects from clients – had stuff to work on yesterday.

It was on the ride home from picking everyone up that one of those conversations came up which struck me as totally funny and one of those “makes ya think” things.

I’ll try to recount the conversation and attempt to spell how I heard it. This was an actual conversation, nobody was trying to be a smart ass:

Kevin: “So that was the day with your dad… He gave me a book on co-sette to borrow.”

Jim: “A book on Cosette?”

Kevin: “Yes.”

Jim: “Cosette?”

Kevin: “Yes! Cosette!”

Jim: “Like the little girl in Les Miserables?”

Kevin: “What?!”

Jim: “What the hell is a cosette? Is it something French?”

Kevin: “No.. it’s analog media.”

Jim: “You got a book about analog media?”

Kevin: “Christ Jim… CAAAA-Set… CAAAAA-Set! Cassette! Audio Tape!”

Chad wasn’t sure what Kevin was talking about either at first. A stunned silence overtook the car… Followed by hysterical laughter.

I got my first CD player when I was 15 years old and quickly abandoned tapes thereafter.

Obviously I haven’t forgotten what a cassette tape “is” – but I guess when a word falls into disuse in one’s brain it becomes conversationally meaningless.

This makes me wonder that if in twenty years we’ll be driving along and have a similar conversation:

Kevin: “I picked up an old book on seedy”

Jim: “Seedy what? Sounds dirty!”

I wonder when the word “blog” will become extinct…. I’m sorry – what was it again?