Thursday, March 10, 2016

Time traveling

Day 10 of 31 at TWT!
My skin prickles as those almost-forgotten chords wake me out of my morning-drive trance. Like magic, the radio simultaneously pulls me clearly into the present moment and far into the foggy past.

"With a little love, and some tenderness..."

It's been ages since I heard this song! As if uncurling from a long, deep sleep, a hidden part of me starts to sing, welcoming every word and note like an old friend.

"With a little peace, and some harmony..."

I'm eleven again, standing in the music store in Grand Central Mall, buying my first CD. Cracked Rear View. I don't even remember how I started liking Hootie and the Blowfish or why I picked that as my first album, but I will never forget buying that CD. One of those rare moments when you're almost standing outside yourself, realizing that you're growing up.

Cracked Rear View. That brownish, distressed picture. I read the liner notes over and over. I knew every word to every song. I played that CD so often that I eventually had to stop, because it started skipping so much that it became obnoxious.

It always had a place of honor at the top of my CD tower!
After that, I just moved on: some classic rock, Dave Matthews Band, and even (cringe) the Backstreet Boys. I never even got another Hootie CD. 

But twenty years later, hearing any song from that album is like opening a door and finding a room from my childhood perfectly preserved. Like uncovering a piece of buried treasure hidden in the sand. Like finding a piece of myself that I didn't know I had lost.

6 comments:

  1. Music has incredible power to transport you to another time and place. Songs just pop up and take you away. Wonder what songs will take little sweetie to another place.

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  2. Oh my gosh, my record like that is Bon Jovi's Slippery When Wet. I listened to my tape of that over and over when I was 15. By the time I was 16, I had thrown them over for Led Zeppelin, and I—like you—never bought another of their recordings. But I know every note of Slippery When Wet, and I go right back to that bedroom with the canopy and posters of Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora on the wall when I hear any of it.

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  3. There are so many songs that take me back in time. And this is one of the blog ideas I have in my notebook. I may have to work on this soon!

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  4. I just had this throw back happen to me this evening. It was "Lover Boy" and the song was "Turn me lose." I remember being at the Agora and spinning to the chorus. I thought I looked pretty good! So many songs bring back happy memories.

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  5. Grand Central Mall. I remember like yesterday taking you there and how happy Nannie was to shop with us. Would love one more trip there with her and you. Then dinner at Sebastian's.

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  6. I have that same CD and now I listen to Darius Rucker as a country artist! My how things change. What amazes me is that I can walk into a room and forget why I went in there in the first place, yet I can sing every word to songs I haven't heard since high school (which was a long time ago...lol).

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