I got a cassette tape recorder when I was around 9 years old. A wonderful JC Penny mono cassette recorder. I loved the thing. Took either wall power or batteries. Thought it was rare I ever had batteries for it. I still have at least 2 full cassettes of the recordings I've made. Here are the MP3s. The files were original Real Media format and I believe in mono. At some point I used my sisters JC Penny Boom Box which had the most awesome stereo microphones built in, though I may have lost those recordings. 