While cleaning out my basement recently, I found a microcassette player containing a tape labeled as holding an interview that my brother and dad conducted with my grandfather about his service in WWII. After several attempts to resurrect the player in the basement, I decided to roll the dice and bought the little Panasonic handheld number above off eBay for $40. After a few minutes digging through my stash of miscellaneous cables and adapters and a few false starts, I was treated to hearing the voices of these three people whom I miss pretty much all the time.
So to all my fellow hoarders of electronics and the spouses who probably force them to sell things on eBay occasionally, thank you for giving me the opportunity to bring this piece of my family history back to life.