I never thought I’d see the day when cassette tapes were considered antiquated and my children wouldn’t be that familiar with them. Oh, they had heard of cassettes, even had seen some before, but I’m not quite sure they’ve seen them work.

On Monday, however, I uncovered something I knew they had never seen before: a reel of tape from a reel-to-reel recorder. Discovering it was great, but I have no way of playing it now.

OK, I have to come clean. Back in my college days I dabbled in radio. Yes, I admit it, I was a disc jockey once upon a time, a talent (if one would stretch the meaning of the word) I resurrected when I worked in Opelousas more than a decade ago. I did a little moonlighting at KSLO AM. My intention was only to do play-by-play for football games in the fall, but doing so required that I carry at least one regular evening shift. Going through that box of things on Monday, I also found an old cassette tape of one of my evening shifts and played snippets of it for the family, just for a few laughs.

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The reel I discovered proves more than my wife is right to say I’m a pack rat. It’s “artifactual” proof that sound recording existed before CDs and MP3s.

The case is marked only “Jeff’s spots,” meaning it probably contains some of the old commercials I had done in college and just after graduation. I’m sure I saved them only for nostalgia, but now I have no way of playing the reel to prove that with the right machine, this thing can cause sound to be emitted.

It is always strange to hear your own voice from a recording device.

According to vocalmusicadvice.com, we sound different to ourselves because our ears pick up the sound vibrations through bone and muscle tissue. Only a fraction of how we hear ourselves is from external sound waves.

Just out of curiosity, I called the Iberia Parish Library to find out if it had any of these antique reel-to-reel players. It doesn’t, but the guy was nice, offering me the suggestion that I go to eBay.

A quick check with the folks in the newsroom turned up with only two people who knew what I was talking about. It did take me a few minutes to get over the blank stares and jokes. Sports Editor Chris Landry said he thought his dad had one, but his father doesn’t live in New Iberia.

Searching eBay I was able to find a recorder just like the one my old radio station used.

It was only $100, but I don’t think I can convince my wife we should buy it just to see what’s on this old tape (assuming it can be played).

Guess I’ll have to just keep the reel as a novelty or conversation piece. Who knows, maybe it will generate more talk being packed away and found another time.

JEFF ZERINGUE is managing editor of The Daily Iberian. He can be reached at iberianedit@bellsouth.net.