WORDS FROM CHILDHOOD–VICTROLAS AND iPods.

WORDS FROM CHILDHOOD–VICTROLAS AND iPods. Forty years ago I read an article that claimed that the word you used to describe an instrument for playing music identified your generation, based on the instrument that was in use when you were a child. “Gramophone” came first, then “Victrola”, then record player, high fi, and stereo (which was as far as technology had gotten when the article was published). The claim rang true. My parents called it a Victrola, and they were born early in the century. The claim has continued to hold true through rapid changes of technology—tape deck, eight track tape, CD, now iPod. In my childhood, we used a record player. I still refer to a record when it’s not even a CD I’m referring to.