Walkman is Dead
As reported Sony has officially killed the walkman. I think you'd be hard pressed to find a new one now, regardless of Chinese licensees continuing production.
I found my old Sony in a drawer today. It even had batteries with some charge left so I could test it. Worked flawlessly except for the terrible hissing sound completely absent from the iPod I am used to now. After a while I also noticed that the pitch somehow wasn't correct, a sure sign of dying batteries.
As you can see I've even had original albums on tape!
I remember going to class on my mountain bike every day with headphones on. (I wasn't any better at spotting people in the street back then either.) I broke my previous walkman while trying to climb the fence at the back of the school because I arrived too early and the gate wasn't opened yet.
I've never had any of the cool ones with auto-reverse and such. When we visited the UK several of my classmates decided to buy one of the more professional models. Were they really cheaper there I couldn't tell. The one on the picture is actually from a duty free shop on the Greek and Bulgarian border.
Did you have one of these? Any fond memories attached? Even better, link a picture!