Its hard to believe that more than 30 years have passed since I graduated MC and the "Kiddie Viddie Crew". Yes, I was a nerd back then, a member of the "Audio Visual Club and the school TV station "WKVC-TV".

It was great finding the Mater Christi web site and the links to the Drama Club and it stirred old memories of working sound for many of the plays. I knew I had an archive of Mater Christi stuff but it is buried all over the place and I didn't recall what I had. Lo and behold, I have audio recordings of some of the plays! So the first order of business is to listen to the tapes. Problem one, the tapes are 1/4 inch reel to reel and my Ampex recorder was shot. All the little rubber wheels were now hard as rocks and the recorder won't play the tapes. Well, reel to reel recorders are as easy to find as 8 track tapes (remember those?) so the only option is to fix the recorder or find another one. As luck would have it my cohort at Mater Christi, Louis Miano, had the same model recorder and he wrote to me a number of years back that there was a place that had parts for the Ampex recorder.

I had a name and an address near Chicago and I prayed it would still be there after 30 years. Well, God must look after little kids, fools and graduates of Mater (Pill Hill) Christi and sure enough the place still existed. I expected my call and query into the replacement parts would generate enough laughter to bust a gut, but the owner, Mr. Warmack, knew exactly the parts I needed as soon as I gave him the model number. He had them available except for one, and of course it was the most critical one and without that one part all was lost. My hopes sank like a rock until he said that if I sent him the part knew a rubber casting company that would rebuild it to factory specifications. Oh joy joy! With the part in the mail I waited 2 months for the rebuild part and the other parts to be shipped to me with a bill. I expected to take out a loan for a custom built part, but lo and behold, the order totaled less than $52.00.

With about an hour of cleaning and oiling the recorder is as good as new and I am proud to say that I am beginning to convert those old tapes to digital formats. You will be able to download the digital files as MP3 so you can play them on your computer or you can order them as an Audio CD.