Bluff City 31: To Be Young Near the Shore Pt. 0

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Episode description[edit | edit source]

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YOU can fix it: Episode 8: Linear Erase Head Replacement

Subtitles provided by gardenia76

SUBTITLES PROVIDED BY GARDENIA76

~ PART OF THE GROVE DEPLOYMENT SUBTITLE COMMUNITY ~

[Upbeat music]

Hi! I’m Marianne. This is “YOU can fix it”, demystifying the goods in your house that you can fix!

Tape players? Radio recorders? Back projectors? They’re less complex than they look!

Patience with the plastic!

[Upbeat music concludes]

Today we’re going to be taking a look at replacing the linear erase head on, uh, one of these:

[Plastic thump]

This is a Persimmon Model 60X VHS player/recorder. I’m sure a lot of y’all have seen these in your parents’ houses! Beautiful thing.

Picked this one up at a thrift store last week.

But this one’s got a problem. It’s not wiping the video correctly.

You got an old sports game you’ve seen enough of? You want to make room for the Mitchell’s talent show? You need a working erase head.

Not to worry. Today I’m going to show you how to break this thing down, get that part replaced, get it all fixed up. Who knows! I might—

[Inaudible, video skips]

—A flat head screwdriver, maybe 1/8 size, a magnetic dauber, cleaning dust, an air-puffer. You got a spectacles repair kit? Get that out, you’ll do fine.

Let’s flip it over and get started

There’s a sticker on the back of this! Let me zoom in on that. “JOCELYN”, and someone’s drawn a little star.

Gonna get your old Persimmon fixed up good, Jocelyn. Great choice of model, Jocelyn.

Contents[edit | edit source]

Opening[edit | edit source]

Dear diary, for the first time ever we’re doing something called summer vacation. Mr Willaker says that the classrooms get too hot in the summer and it’s bad for your constitution to study in the heat. I’ve heard that they’re been doing this for twenty years in New York and Philadelphia! We are always so behind the times here, but I cannot lie: I am exceedingly excited.

Father will want me to work at the taffy shop sometimes I’m sure but just think! Swimming any day of the week, a whole afternoon to walk the boards and maybe even visit the piers! A new one's opening soon, The Golden Fortune, and it sounds just deluxe. I cannot wait to go there with the girls and try my luck on the games, and ride some of the amusements, and maybe meet someone.

There is one bad thing about this vacation though. Mr Willaker says that we have a summer assignment, a theme essay based on the question ‘what does it mean to be young near the shore?’ and I just… I hate it! You may as well ask us why the sea separates us from Europe or Asia, you may as well keep us in class for another month! In fact I would prefer that. At least learning geometry is useful!

What does it mean to be young near the shore? What should I say to that? Am I to speak to how the salt air bolsters the physique? How the fishing and rowing gives us good opportunities to connect to nature? That the city gets visitors from all around and that means that there’ll be plenty of jobs for us after school?

What does it mean to be young by the shore? I hate this question. I just want to run along the surf with my friends. I just want to stand up to my ankles in the water and call out to the gulls. I just want to dance at the open-air pier when the band plays my favourite number. I just want to find a skirt, the right skirt, the sort of skirt that makes me feel more like me. To go to the music shop, to run my hand along the keys and strings. To find time when there isn’t any. To fill a glass bottle with dyed sand and laugh at the shapes and the colours. To ride the great big summer's wheel and point to my house and say “there it is, there it is, that is my house!”.

What does it mean to be young near the shore? How could I begin to know?

Plot[edit | edit source]

This episode is character creation.

Cast[edit | edit source]