since we're talking about old music

certain songs bring back specific events in my memory, and other songs just bring up general feelings or images from recurring scenarios.

hearing jim croce's "bad, bad leroy brown" reminds me of driving around in dad's truck singing along until i realized i said 'damn'. i didn't know if i would get punished for swearing. i don't remember dad saying anything at all, but having parenting experience now, i'm sure he was laughing at me.

listening to "hot legs" or "do you think i'm sexy" by rod stewart always makes me think of pam and i remember sitting in her room next to her tiny record player as she danced on her bed. hearing "bridge over troubled water" just makes me think of her in general and our relationship.

we used to do a lot of duets back in the day. dad had a reel-to-reel player and used to tape us singing. sometimes it was just for a lark, or to record candid memories, but sometimes it was a performance. i remember pam and nicole practicing "you light up my life" repeatedly for days and days until i was about ready to scream. then again, jeanine and i rehearsed "love will keep us together" almost as much. she and i also made up some of our own ditties which we thought were awesome, of course. i haven't spoken with her in years, but whenever i hear that song i think of her. thanks to 93.1 doug.fm, i hear all these old songs a lot more often than you'd think.

dad had some of everything on those tapes. his music, our music, our voices. there's one reel of dad trying to get me (approximately 3 years old?) to recite something for the tape, but i refused to do it. what's there is probably more than 5 minutes of him offering different requests and suggestions, but all his coaxing was futile. i don't think you hear me say anything more than "noooo."

it's funny how kids will do some of the strangest things for attention, unless their parents ask them to.