Another one bites the dust

Recently, I have been cleaning out things and getting rid of things.  I decided to get rid of my records and record player since I had only used them about 3 times in the past 6 years, and then only for Christmas music.  I took my records to Bookman's (local used bookstore) and they only took one record!  Luckily they know a guy who recycles records so that's where those went.  But the record player deserves this entire post!

A few years ago (14?) my mom bought this brand new record player with tape deck and CD player.

 

A few years after that my mom complained about a CD that got stuck in there.  In fact, just this weekend she told me which CD it was.  About that time, both the tape deck and CD player had broken.  So now it was just a really cool record player.  Six years ago I inherited the record player and have kept it and used it every now and then.  So last month I decided I wanted to get rid of it, as I said.  But first, I wanted to get that CD out of that stuck CD player.  I thought it would be a great Mother's Day present; to reunite my mom with her long lost CD.  Today I embarked on the task.  

The only way to open up this player was from the bottom.  After I unscrewed the lid and removed it I got to see all the fun parts.  Here's what some of it looks like.  At this point, I had unscrewed most of the CD player and it was loosely being held by some wiring.  At this point I also figured out how to work the opening mechanism that was so thoroughly broken. 

Here's what I saw, when the CD player opened wide.

Um, yeah, there's no CD in there.  So, never to be thwarted by an unsuspecting electronic device, I delved in further to see if there was a broken CD stuck somewhere within the player.  So, I cut the wiring with my handy dandy wire cutters and pulled that sucker right out of the depths of the player.  Here's what I saw.

Top and bottom views show that there is no CD within; there's not even any random pieces of a broken CD.  For years I had thought there was a CD stuck in this player and my brain just couldn't comprehend that it wasn't true.  So I took the following picture just to be sure.

From within the frame of the player you can see no bits of a broken CD or even a shiny, in tact CD.  I'm not sure where that CD went, but there was definitely and conclusively no CD in this player.  What do you think?  Is this a case of the brownies coming in and stealing my stuck CD?  Or are the Grant's all a crazy bunch that can't remember a thing?  As a result of all my determination and destruction, the player ended up in the trash.  Don't worry; you can still buy brand new record players if you want.