My mom and dad corresponded with each other while he was in Vietnam via reel to reel tapes. the player and box of them is stashed away somewhere, I found them in HS and listened to some, I really need to find them again...
When it comes time to listen to your tapes again do some research on how to preserve them. They most likely need to be baked for a while in order to dehydrate them. The object is to keep from shedding all the oxide (which has absorbed moisture) off and losing the info for good.