Wednesday, May 1, 2013

The Best Oldies Songs Take Me Back...

Certain things remind me of other things. Today those reminders are songs. Songs take me to places in my memory that I don't visit very often. Sometimes, the Best Oldies Songs are super reminders of what was going on in my life when the songs first came out.

Every time I hear "Hit Me with Your Best Shot" by Pat Benatar, I think of my sister in law Linda. She loved records she could sing to. I have a memory of waiting for her one morning about 25 years ago. She was doing her hair and she had the Pat Benatar record playing rather loud. Over her hair dryer and the music, I could her her singing "Hit me with your best shot! Fire Awaaaaaay!" She dried and brushed and sang, entertaining herself while doing her hair. Linda had really thick, curly, hard to wrangle hair. It took some time and effort to get it under control so Linda could get on with her day. One side of an LP later, Linda was ready to go.

At work we listen to oldies radio and "Anyway You Want It" by Journey never fails to remind me of Rodney Dangerfield crying "Let's Party!" on the golf course. For me Caddyshack is one of the classic screwball comedies. I watch it every time I find it on tv, commercials or not. I was about 18 when Caddyshack came out and my boyfriend worked at a local golf course. In the evenings, with a couple of friends, we would go out to the back nine and hit a few balls and sneak a few beers. We always had a boom box with us and cranked the tunes. I could identify with Rodney parting down on the fairway.

When I was a child, we lived in a small house with a floor furnace. On the cold winter mornings, mother would rise, turn up the heat and then switch on the radio.Her favorite was an AM news station out of Boston. BZ radio played the Best Oldies Songs songs and some new ones, reported news and traffic and entertained us while we warmed up standing over the floor furnace and got ready for school.

I love hearing old songs that remind me of stuff that I may not otherwise think of.

2 comments:

  1. I can't believe the songs of my youth are now called "oldies". What does that make me?!

    ReplyDelete
  2. well, i can't say it makes us "old." maybe just older. I don't know, i don't think we are old until we stop. literally.

    ReplyDelete

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