hope those kids were actors, seemed dumb as dirt.
had one of those when i was a kid, used it quite often....while i do miss the whole "moving parts" of it while listening to a song (felt more, musical?) i sure do not miss the limitations of the audio itself. had the original walkman and a couple models after that as well that sony came out with, i killed so many tapes and batteries with it, was like a life support system i never left home without it and my current favorite mix tape (partially from LP and some from radio).
many years later i gave the sony sports cd player a shot, for a hand held cd player its was amazing how you can run (or even flail your arms about) and it doesn't skip...still have it and use it occasionally.