AFRO writer Michelle Richardson’s best Christmas gift was given to her on the Christmas of 1999. (Courtesy of Michelle Richardson)
By Michelle Richardson
AFRO Freelance Writer
The best gift I have ever received came on Christmas of 1999. I was in 5th grade, and we had just moved to Randallstown from Baltimore City.
That Christmas I got my very own CD player. It was purple and I got one CD that came with it: Britney Spears’ debut album “…Baby One More Time.” My goodness, I loved Britney Spears and still do, actually. My birthday is a few weeks before Christmas and I already got her Barbie doll, so the CD was just the cherry on top.
I played that CD everyday, all day. I never skipped songs and it never got old. Maybe because it was mine and everything else that I had, I had to share with my siblings.
That CD and CD player brought me so much joy. I loved looking in the booklet that came with the disc thinking “She’s so pretty. How is she so young living like this?”
Music has always been one of my escapes, beside reading, so it was no surprise that when my grandparents gave me that CD player. They would have to pry it out of my hands to get me to do anything else.
To this day, at my “big age,” that album has its own playlist on my Apple Music.
I don’t think I ever had another CD to go with that CD player. I didn’t care for another one. I don’t know what happened to that CD player either. Y2K hit and I probably wanted an iPod.
